Biology 3601A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Rotating Magnetic Field, Compass, Vestibular Nuclei

• School: Western University
• Department: Biology
• Course: Biology 3601A/B
• Professor: Brent Sinclair

Document Summary

Magnetic poles move and are not at the geographic north and south poles. Variation in the intensity of the magnetic field. Variation in inclination of magnetic field in different places in the globe. Magnetic bacteria use (cid:494)magnetosomes(cid:495) to orient to magnetic fields. Magnetospirillum gryphyswaldense specialize in narrow zones with low oxygen. Want to be in this sweet spot but they are so tiny they cannot detect gravity. Move up and down magnetic field lines which allows them to determine what(cid:495)s up and what(cid:495)s down. Magnetic field lines in this case do point up and down. Magnetosomes are magnetic particles that are oriented according to magnetic fields. Tenebrio molitor change orientation in different magnetic fields. See evidence of magnetic orientation in lots of different organisms. Meal worms in an enclosure normally head magnetic north. If you artificially reverse the magnetic field, they head magnetic south. Implies that meal worms are orienting predominantly in the direction of the magnetic field.