[HN Gopher] Venus Flytraps Have Magnetic Fields
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       Venus Flytraps Have Magnetic Fields
        
       Author : bryanrasmussen
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2021-03-23 07:06 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.vice.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com)
        
       | Udo wrote:
       | What a terrible, misleading headline. As expected, the reference
       | to the human brain is there entirely for virality reasons.
       | 
       | Whenever charge flows, there will be magnetic fields. It's common
       | for this to occur, because all known life uses ion channels in
       | some way, and multicellular organisms do use electrical potential
       | for internal signaling (such as nervous systems). Thus, the study
       | of magnetic fields can be used to gain information about the
       | state of an organism and scientists are now applying this to
       | plants as well.
        
         | fsloth wrote:
         | Reminds me of the experiment of putting salmon to MRI and
         | showing it photographs
         | https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/fmri-gets-slap-in-the-...
         | 
         | The salmon test was not made to prove that salomon exhibit
         | post-death brain activity but that the correlations from the
         | said experiment are of roughly as meaningful as many brainscan
         | studies.
         | 
         | The new-age aspects of this article reminds me of this test ...
         | except for lack of insight.
         | 
         | Would really suck to be the professional interviewed in this
         | article.
        
         | chaps wrote:
         | Heh, yeah.. the article is strange. The magnetic fields
         | infographic includes "Palm of Person Emitting Qi - 400
         | Nanotesla" without any context. Makes me think that its lack of
         | context was intentional to build towards a "spiritual" vibe of
         | the article. The infographic was made by the author, so it's
         | not like they sourced some random graphic from somewhere.
         | 
         | Also, apparently the author's the "Head of Publishing at Vice
         | Media". Could explain why it wasn't cut during editing.
        
         | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
         | The headline reads like that there is a possibility that the
         | life on Venus might show signs of intelligence.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Even a water molecule has a magnetic field.
        
           | airhead969 wrote:
           | Yep, it's polar. And water can be magnetized. Also, big zaps
           | from falling water, which implies an EMF.
           | 
           | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221137971.
           | ..
           | 
           | "Sparks from Falling Water: Kelvin's Thunderstorm" Veritasium
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/rv4MjaF_wow
        
         | r00fus wrote:
         | This much more informative (and interesting to me) than the
         | title. Excellent distillation.
        
       | doodlebugging wrote:
       | >Some perspective on scale:
       | 
       | >* A toaster's magnetic field is 300,000 times more powerful than
       | the human brain's field
       | 
       | >* The Earth's magnetic field is 2,000 times more powerful than a
       | toaster's field
       | 
       | Sorry all. Does this mean that I should be letting my toaster
       | handle the difficult problems I encounter in my life? Up or down?
       | Lighter or darker?
       | 
       | Is it now potentially true that the old saying "dumber than a box
       | of rocks" is actually a high compliment?
       | 
       | Since I have a lot, too many actually, of fridge magnets picked
       | up on various vacations over the years plastered to metallic
       | objects around my workspace, am I surrounded by artificially
       | super-intelligent placards that spend all their time waiting for
       | a properly formed query before they excitedly initiate a life-
       | changing brain dump of knowledge that I could gain from no other
       | source?
       | 
       | This article was funny. I am going to use this to poke fun at my
       | vegan relatives when they attack my decision to continue enjoying
       | bacon, steak, and tendies.
        
         | fiftyfifty wrote:
         | That's interesting info, I wonder if a toaster sized magnetic
         | field would be enough to protect people from being irradiated
         | in space?
        
           | scottisbrave84 wrote:
           | Yes the strings in it average hoodie have enough pressure in
           | them to keep oxygen flowing anywhere in the universe...
        
           | doodlebugging wrote:
           | I submit that we should test this to discover whether there
           | is any real benefit to fresh toast in space besides the
           | obvious vehicle for delivery of peanut butter and jam.
           | 
           | Based solely on the name, which conjures images of the origin
           | of the radiation that we propose to study and potentially to
           | reduce, I propose that we should use this toaster:
           | 
           | http://automaticbeyondbelief.org/
        
       | antattack wrote:
       | TED talk demonstration (2017) @5:20:
       | 
       | https://www.ted.com/talks/greg_gage_electrical_experiments_w...
        
       | yurielt wrote:
       | Everyday more and more it seems like vice has become for Disney
       | what fox is for Murdoch honestly to say that this is misleading
       | an unscientific could be an understatement if there is a place
       | whose links we should ban it is definitely vice
        
       | tubularhells wrote:
       | 'palm of person emitting Qi'
       | 
       | Scientific af!
        
         | xqyf wrote:
         | Replacing "Qi" with "tiny magnetic fields associated with
         | physiological activities in the body," is there any truth to
         | this?
        
         | bglusman wrote:
         | I was super skeptical of/confused by this also, still am, but
         | they appear to be referencing this research which, if anyone
         | can find any evidence of independent replication, I would love
         | to know about: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1353653/
        
           | asdff wrote:
           | Wow from 1992. The three more that cited it were each from
           | "The Journal of Alternative Medicine and choice Buzz Words,"
           | but one was from a more respectable journal testing the
           | effects of spiritual healing on cancer cell lines in 2005. In
           | short, not significantly different from the control.
           | 
           | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16136029/
        
         | throwawayffffas wrote:
         | I think it's a joke, it's probably the same as palm of person
         | waiting for a high five.
        
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