Like the Marvel comic book hero, we are all iron men and women. Iron composes the heme of hemoglobin, the red pigment in our blood. It's stored in ferritin, a protein ubiquitous in almost all living ...

Scientists say microscopic magnetite fossils may have enabled an ancient creature to detect Earth’s magnetic field, offering ...

Researchers have discovered significant quantities of potentially toxic magnetic nanoparticles in human brains, sparking fears they could lead to brain diseases. The particles, made of a form of iron ...

NEWPORT, Ore. – It’s widely understood that animals such as salmon, butterflies and birds have an innate magnetic sense, allowing them to use the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation to places such ...

Diesel fumes, like the ones emitted by trains, vehicles and industrial operations, are thought to be to blame for magnetite in the human brain. Stuart Wainstock (Flickr/Creative Commons) It may be ...

Researchers have taken a step closer to solving one of nature's most remarkable mysteries: How do salmon, when it's time to spawn, find their way back from distant ocean locations to the stream where ...

Researchers have isolated what are essentially tiny compass needles in the noses of rainbow trout that may explain these and many other animals' incredible ability to navigate across vast distances.

But, unlike humans, animals that travel long distances must rely on their own senses. And some of them have a long-range ...

After spending 3 years at sea and traveling up to 300 kilometers away from home, a rainbow trout can swim straight back to its original hatching ground, following freshwater streams inland and rarely ...

Learn more about loggerhead turtles’ ability to feel the magnetic field throughout their migrations — an ability that they’ve revealed to researchers through dancing.

Scientists suggest magnetite crystals that form inside specialized receptor cells of salmon and other animals may have roots in ancient genetic systems that were developed by bacteria and passed to ...