Besides being known worldwide as the plant that eats insects, small frogs, and glows a fluorescent blue, the Venus fly trap was recently discovered to have yet another interesting feature: it produces a magnetic field.
Magnetic fields, scientifically speaking, are the locations around a magnet, magnetic object, or electrical charge that are creating a magnetic force.
In the case of the Venus fly trap, or any plant for that matter, this definition feels like a strange fit, but there is more than meets the eye in the plant kingdom, especially in the case of the Venus fly trap.
When the Venus fly trap closes its jaws on its unfortunate prey, a similar process to that of a muscle contraction occurs. This process, called an action potential, happens as a result of a temporary shift in charge across the membranes of the cells in question.
As Anne Fabricant, the lead author of the research, told Live Science. “Wherever there is electrical activity, there should also be magnetic activity,”
Fabricant and her team utilized what is known as an atomic magnetometer within a highly controlled space called the Berlin Magnetically Shielded Room at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the national metrology institute of Germany. Under these extreme conditions and through the use of these incredibly sensitive instruments, they were able to detect the faint, tell-tale whisper of a magnetic field in action.
“You could say the investigation is a little like performing an MRI scan in humans,” explained Fabricant in a statement. “The problem is that the magnetic signals in plants are very weak, which explains why it was extremely difficult to measure them with the help of older technologies.”
Now, you’re probably worrying about all the flies that were harmed in the conducting of this research but don’t, because they weren’t. The fly traps were triggered using heat, and not a single fly, nor any insect was harmed.
Immediately after the triggering, they were able to measure the magnetic field produced by the action potential, which, according to their research was a whopping 0.5 picoteslas; not much in comparison to the Earth, but in comparison to an animal:
“The signal magnitude recorded is similar to what is observed during surface measurements of nerve impulses in animals,” said Fabricant.
The researchers hope that their work will inspire more studies into biomagnetism, and the magnetic fields surrounding plant life in particular.
As they state in their paper: “In the future, magnetometry may be used to study long-distance electrical signaling in a variety of plant species, and to develop non-invasive diagnostics of plant stress and disease.”