Die Geschichte von den Winzigen Magneten
Paula, 01/08/07|04:51 pm
Es war einmal vor langer Zeit eine Bakterie im Sumpf. Sie lebte glücklich im Kreise ihrer Bakterienfreunde. Eines Tages teilte sich die Zelle. Dabei unterlief ihr aber ein schlimmer Fehler: Sie misplazierte eine Nukleotidbase, so dass sich in ihrer Tochterzelle fortan kleine Fe(II)Fe(III)2O4- Ablagerungen[1] bildeten. Diese kleinen Magneten, zogen die Bakterie immer in Richtung des Sumpfbodens. Die anderen Bakterien fanden das doof und schwammen fort. Die kleine magnetische Bakterie folgte ihnen traurig. Plötzlich gerieten die Bakterien aber in eine Sumpfwasserhöhe wo zu viel Sauerstoff vorhanden war dort starben einige Bakterien. Panisch schwammen die anderen Bakterien woanders hin. Dabei gerieten sie in Wasser wo zu wenig Sauerstoff enthalten war. Wieder starben ein paar. Hilflos tummelten sich die Bakterien im Sumpf, bis unsere kleine magnetische Bakterie sich zaghaft zu Wort meldete: “Ich kann euch zeigen wo das Wasser am besten ist..” Ungläubig wurde sie von den anderen Bakterien umringt. Da aber immernoch Bakterien starben, beschlossen sie ihr zu folgen. Tatsächlich führte die kleine magnetische Bakterie die anderen in die richtige Sumpftiefe, so dass alle wieder sicher atmen konnten. Die Bakterie hatte sich nämlich gemerkt wie stark der Zug am Magneten war der in der Richtigen Sumpftiefe an ihrem Magneten zog. Freudig wurde die kleine magnetische Bakterie in den Kreis der anderen Bakterien aufgenommen. Es zeigte sich dass sie und ihre Töchter besonders gut überleben, da sie nicht wie ihre Verwandten gedankenlos in andere Sumpftiefen schwammen. So leben sie denn heute noch glücklich in den Sümpfen in denen ihre Verwandten schon lange nicht mehr hausen.
Ja, ja, Evolution ist schon was tolles. Ich wünschte sie hätte den Menschen ein Werkzeug gegeben besser mit Jetlag umzugehen. Der lässt mich gerade nämlich gedankenlos durch die Gegend taumeln.
Übrigens gibt es auch im menschlichen Gehirn Magnetit, aber es schein keinen Sinn zu haben. Forschung zu dem Thema wird hier betrieben.
There was once long ago a bacterium in the swamp. It lived happily in the circle of its bacteria friends. One day it divided itself. It occurred however a bad error: It misplaced a nucleotide base, so that from now on in its daughter cell small Fe (II) Fe (III) 2O4 deposits[2] formed. These small magnets, always pulled the bacterium toward the swamp bottom. The other bacteria found that stupid and swam away. The small magnetic bacterium followed them sadly. Suddenly the bacteria came into a swamp water height where too much oxygen was present some bacteria died there. Paniky the other bacteria swam elsewhere. They stoped where too little oxygen was contained in the water. Again a few died. Helplessly the bacteria huddled in the swamp, until our small magnetic bacterium softly grabed the word: “I can show you where the water is best.” It was surrounded disbelievingly by the other bacteria. Since bacteria were still dying, they decided to follow it. The small magnetic bacterium actually led the others into the correct swamp water depth, so that all could breathe again safely. The bacterium had noticed how strong the pull at the magnet was in the correct swamp water depth. Joyfully the small magnetic bacterium was taken up in the circle of the other bacteria. It showed that it and its daughters survived particularly well, since they did not swim as thoughtlessly their relatives into other swamp water depth. Thus they live happily today where their relatives no longer live.
Yes, evolution is something great. I wished it would have given humans a tool to better deal with jet-lag. This is making my very disoriented right now. By the way there is also magnetite in the human brain. Research on the topic is done here.
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am 9. 01. 07 um 1:9
Hi Jokerine,
Jester with the Safety Specs
Harbinger of All Chemistry
Welcome back !
A nice story you are telling here …
I once read about the fact that birds have a deposit of magnetite in their head, near their beaks. With that, they can navigate, using the earths magnetic field; especially for those that go from Europe to Africa, this is vital, so that they do not end up in a lethal area, like the deserts.
It is interesting to read about us humans having that magnetic stuff in our heads, too. I remember reading a story of a man who was in northern Africa, during the Second World War, as a soldier of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. He wrote that during the strong sandstorms he always got a massive headache, located in always the same part of his head. Once, by coincidence, he found out that after touching a heavy metallic object, a car-lifing device, the headache vanished instantly. He explained this in the following way: during the storm, untold numbers of sand particles rub each other, charging his body electrically. After touching the heavy carlifting device that is connected to earth simply by lying there, he had decharged himself.
I’m not an expert in this field, but as far as I know, an electric field always has its magnetic twin; we cannot sense any electricity, but maybe its magnetic field compound. It seems like only very few of us can … fortunatly, in our high-electicity world.
Then there’s an other interesting story; last week I was with some friends. We were doing strategy gaming, “Battleteching”, and had a really good time. Most of the time, at least. At those other times, we had to do kitchen duty; rather boring, so we were talking a lot. One of the guys told us about the time he spend visiting his relatives who lived in Lousiana, in the swamps … no, they were not bacteria … they had a piece of land there, and were raising horses. From time to time it happened that some broke through the fence, and went into the swamp. At one such opportunity, this friend decided to follow them. His relatives warned him about going there, but he insisted on it. They gave him their dog; it feels dangerous swamp holes, where you can drown like in quicksand. So he went out; following the trail of the horses. There are big trees there, too, so it is quite dark, even during day. In the evening, it darkens very fast. So, after one hour, he decided to go back; and he got back. I asked him, how he could navigate, as he could nerver go directly; he had to walk around the swamp holes that the dog indicated, and the horse trails disappeared over time. He had never been there before.
Instead of an answer, he asked me: do you know where the norther direction is ? We were standing in the kitchen, drying dishes; there were only two small windows, it was clouded, you could not see the sun. He stood for two seconds, looking in my direction, not out of the window, and pointed selfconfidently in a direction, towards me. Another guy was also there; he knew the area, looked out of the window, recognized the landscape, thought about it, and then told us, after maybe 10 seconds, that the north lies exactly in that direction. That was funny, he had got it right, and was not surprised about it. He told us that he goes hunting sometimes, and never gets lost. He is big fan of wild west stuff, and has a replica of a 1873 0.45 caliber rifle. During our Historyline-CON, as this whole things was called officially (Convention: One of those Freak&Nerd meetings … for those of you that know about such things: we were playing scenes from the epic Battle of Tukayyid, 3052, when Comstar emerged from the shadows, to stop the advance of the Clans, that had already defeated most of the resistance the Inner Sphere had tried to build up against them), he went to a shooting tournament …
After some days I got my opinion about him: he’s one of those good-natured, friendly ones. They stay like that even at five o’clock in the morning, after some beers, and several hours of talking and joking. He does not think to deeply, cares more about the simple things in life … to put it in a cynical way: there cannot be too much in his head, but there is a compass in there, that’s for sure.
Evolution has equipped us with a lot of fascinating skills and abilities, to help us surviving. Direction sense is one of them. Another is for example the ability to find out instinctivly, without counting, that some number of things is missing. I read about “savages”, people from another than our “civilized” world, that they can detect with one glance if and how many animals are missing in their flock.
I believe, that thanks to the fact that we grew up in our “civilized” world, we never trained those skills, and thus most of us cannot use them …
No, No, No, I’m not gonna give any of you white coats the identity or adress of this friend of mine, especially not to you BIOLOGISTS … like I said, he’s a fine guy, and I do not want him to end on one of your dissection tables, for the Good of Mankind … the other guy, the german, is dead already, so he is save from you !
Ha, the best way I know to deal with jet-lag: just ignore it. I know, “innocense proves nothing”, neither does ignorance; alas, it is not a desired skill for a sister-scientess, but in this case it’s really usefull.
Cu(I)
am 10. 01. 07 um 10:10
Kompliment.
Den Text ganz selbst erfunden?
am 10. 01. 07 um 12:10
Äh, bis auf die Sache mit den Magnetitkristallen in den Bakterien. Und dass sie damit ihre Wassertiefe regulieren. Ich sollte mir angewöhnen Referenzen aufzuschreiben. Aber das ist dann so wie Arbeit. IHH.
am 10. 01. 07 um 19:10
Lots of thoughts of hot tea and a good night’s sleep, and best wishes for your jet lag to go away.
am 10. 01. 07 um 21:10
Thank you!!