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The Tadpole Experiment

@thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social
20 followers 0 following 29 posts

Pop-up experiment on the effects of weak magnetic fields in biology. Ran in open science mode, Apr to Sep 24, by @ClariceDAiello @LodesaniA @geoffanders. Follow us at TheTadpoleExperiment.org!

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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 16/10/2024
Dear tadpolers! We're delighted to present our results: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Tadpoles, indeed, can sense the absence of Earth's tiny magnetic field. How they do so can have major implications for health, ecology, and space travel. Follow the continuation of our work at @QuantumBioOrg!
biorxiv.org
Weak magnetic field effects in biology are measurable— accelerated Xenopus embryogenesis in the absence of the geomagnetic field
Despite decades of reports of weak magnetic field effects in biology across the tree of life and on a broad range of cell types, the evidence to date remains met with skepticism. To remedy this, we pr...
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 09/05/2024
Can we cure disease by driving cellular processes with weak magnetic fields? For decades, scientists have been finding weak magnetic fields that "do stuff" to biological systems.
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 03/05/2024
Here's how #TheTadpoleExperiment started. Our lab, the @QuBiT_Lab, studies the effects of weak magnetic fields in biology. Most times, people were skeptic.
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 01/05/2024
Even though this is #TheTadpoleExperiment, we will also have zebrafish inside the hypomagnetic chamber! On Monday, we did put about 480 zebrafish embryos inside the chamber, each in an individual plastic "well" (or tiny pond). Zebrafish is also a also well-studied "model organism" in biology.
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 30/04/2024
This week at #TheTadpoleExperiment we will be performing the first embryo fertilizations in the lab! Our two resident frogs, Fifi and Veronika, who have been acclimatizing in our lab for a couple of weeks, are being “boosted” with hormones on Mon and Tue; Frog testes from will arrive on Tue.
Fifi and Veronika, frogs
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
Wanna see some some cool, #OpenScience? Follow #TheTadpoleExperiment! For the next 3 mo, in real time and in #OpenScience mode, we will explore the extent to which weak magnetic fields have an effect on life. What do you think we will find out? Engage with the experiment: TheTadpoleExperiment.org!
Cool, open science
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
But do cells and organisms really react to weak magnetic fields, you ask? Organisms have been proposed to react to magnetic fields using different mechanisms: *chunks of magnetite; *conduction channels; *a quantum phenomenon involving electron spins: no unambiguous scientific proof for this one!
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 24/04/2024
Here are some posts paying homage to our exquisite big box of metal! The hypomagnetic chamber used in #TheTadpoleExperiment was custom-made by @Mumetalshields. It has a residual magnetic field inside of 9 nT -- orders of magnitude smaller than Earth's (already tiny) 50 muT!
Hypomagnetic chamber
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 23/04/2024
Let’s dive into the phases of #TheTadpoleExperiment: 🐸In Phase 1 (May), we monitor tadpole growth under a magnetic field of 9 nT (nanotesla)—the most extreme condition our chamber can handle. Why? To push the boundaries of what we know about biological responses in very weak magnetic environments.
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The Tadpole Experiment @thetadpoleexpt.bsky.social · 22/04/2024
Yay! thetadpoleexperiment.org is live, delving into the intriguing effects of magnetic fields on life. Over the next 3 mo, we will test the effects of varying magnetic fields on the biological development of tadpoles and zebrafish. #TheTadpoleExperiment #OpenScience
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