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back to article DOLPHINS SMELL MAGNETS – did we hear that right, boffins?

Scientists have discovered that dolphins are sensitive to magnetic fields, shedding some light on how the lusty mammals navigate the oceans. A team at the Université de Rennes in France carried out experiments on six bottlenose dolphins to determine whether they behaved differently when exposed to magnets. The researchers …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So long, and thanks for the magnetic barrels

    Well, at least they are still around. As long as they are here, we can all relax, nothing really bad is going to happen. And, they are willing to participate in experiments for fish. It's very decent of them.

    5 0 Reply
  2. kryptonaut
    Boffin

    Lobsters

    "The dolphins were immediately drawn to the magnetic barrels"

    Had the dolphins been fed on lobsters before the experiment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esakMUbzAIY

    1 1 Reply
    1. Message From A Self-Destructing Turnip
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: Lobsters

      For that theory to stick the lobsters have to be fed rabbits made of steel.

      0 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Were the non magnetic barrels packed with material of the same capacity and density as the magnetic ones? If not were the dolphins attracted because their echo location indicated the magnetic barrels had something in them?

    10 1 Reply
    1. oolor
      Reply Icon

      That was my first thought too.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could we put a super-magnet into the sea and get the world's dolphins to come to it? Then we could catch them all and teach them how to play netball.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Trigonoceps occipitalis
      Reply Icon

      Nah, we're human, we'll just kill 'em.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Martin Budden Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Nah, we're human, we'll just kill 'em.

        Sad but true.

        0 0 Reply
  5. Semtex451
    Holmes

    "dolphins are sensitive to magnetic fields"

    Other news just in... Birds are too.

    0 1 Reply
  6. stu 4

    Pfft

    has anyone checked that Dolphins are not simply magnetic ?

    9 0 Reply
  7. Chris Tierney

    Whats that flipper?

    G'day flip, your picking up a surge in solar geomagnetic activity that might launch a CME towards earth that will wipe out all television and internet news except for the BBC news because nothing in this universe can halt their B.S?

    1 2 Reply
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are they sure the dolphins could smell the magets or was this just another case of someone giving dolphins lsd to see what would happen?!?!?

    1 0 Reply
    1. i like crisps
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: Anon Cow

      Well if fish can smell magets on the end of a fishing line then it must mean that all marine creatures can smell magets in barrels or not. Just common sense really. I personally don't like magets, horrible, wriggling things....yuk!

      4 0 Reply
      1. wdmot
        Reply Icon

        Re: Anon Cow

        Magets -- would that be little mages? I didn't know they wriggled.

        0 0 Reply
  9. chivo243 Silver badge

    Hi I'm

    Troy McClure, you might remember me from such documentaries as "The Dolphin Smells like Teen Spirit"... and "Night of the Dolphin". Dolphins can't really smell magnets, but they can smell a red herring a mile away.

    3 0 Reply
  10. Mark 85

    At some point the dolphins are going to tire of humans doing silly tests on them. Or maybe they have and these are actually the dolphins testing us silly humans.

    1 0 Reply
  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Well, of course the dolphins responded like that!!

    They're smart, self-interested animals, and if given the chance to get a free tesla....

    (The American Humane Society certifies that no animals were amused in the publishing of this joke)

    2 0 Reply
  12. Bunbury

    Of course they're attracted

    They know that magnetic fields = frickin lasers

    0 0 Reply
  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. magnets

    So when all the dolphins mysteriously head into the middle of the Atlantic and vanish, we know that the "Doomsday CME" is inbound...

    0 0 Reply

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