Recently a team of scientists
discovered that there is a definite link between salmon,fish, and
magnetic fields. The scientists conducted experiments in which they
placed 2-inch juvenile salmon in to five gallon buckets and let the
fish acclimatize to their new environment. After the fish
acclimatized to the environment they studied the direction in which
the fish were swimming. When the fish met a magnetic wave with the
characteristics of the northern limits of the ocean the fish would
swim south, and when met with at magnetic wave from the southern
limits of the ocean the fish would swim north.
The most
interesting part of the whole experiment was the salmon that they
used. They used fish from the Oregon Hatchery Research Center in the
Alsea River Basin. A postdoctoral researcher stated, "What is particularly exciting about these
experiments is that the fish we tested had never left the hatchery
and thus we know that their responses were not learned or based on
experience, but rather they were inherited," (Nathan Putman).
This quote fascinated me! The fish not only pass down this trait
genetically, but the sensitivity level of it is of the charts. The
force of the magnetic field that the fish picked up on is not enough
to even slightly change that of a compass' needle.
This study was funded by the Oregon Sea
Grant and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wild life, and will be
published in this months' issue of Current Biology.
I does not state it in the article, but I wonder how can the ability
to sense magnetic currents be passed down? What type of DNA would
this trait be resembled in?
Themes
of Nature of Science
Science
is based on evidence, this is supported by the data collected during
the experiments performed on the fish.
Role
of Credibility, the people performing this experiment were
professional and highly respected.
Importance
of repeatability, the fish swam in the predicted direction every
time.
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