DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v15dv4288
title: A reproducible model for magnetosensitivity: earthworms in transparent soil reduce their cumulative movement in extremely weak magnetic field

description: The magnetic sense remains one of the mysteries of sensory biology.
 Despite fifty years of extensive research, science seems to be at a
 standstill. One of the major factors contributing to this scientific
 stasis is the lack of simple, reproducible model systems. Here we examine
 magnetoreception in earthworms held in transparent soil. Using video
 recordings, and machine learning-based analysis, we show that earthworms
 move significantly less when held in a near-zero magnetic field. This
 effect of near-zero magnetic field on earthworm activity was highly
 reproducible and significant through all trials. Furthermore, under some
 circumstances the earthworms showed significant group magnetic
 directionality, however this result was not reproducible. By using
 earthworms in transparent soil and manipulating the magnetic field we
 created a robust protocol that facilitates examination of magnetoreception
 in a simple organism. This may serve as a crucial springboard in the
 ongoing quest to unravel this mysterious sense.
description: # A reproducible model for magnetosensitivity: earthworms in transparent
 soil reduce their cumulative movement in extremely weak magnetic field
 ReadMe for column names in the file: FullMetadataWormsExp1.csv and
 FullMetadataWormsExp2.csv. This data was created for the study name
 "A reproducible model for magnetoreception: earthworms in transparent
 soil reduce their cumulative movement in extreamly low magnetic
 field" by Michael Bar-Ziv, Dan Szklowin, Oren Pearlson, Yoni Vortman
 All the data was dowmsampled to 1 sec intervals. col u-x are relevant only
 for file "FullMetadataWormsExp1.csv" Col A,"ID" = Worm
 ID Col B,"Field" = Field type Col C, "Temperature" (in
 Celsius) = Room temperature Col D, "Weight" (in grams) = Worm
 weight Col E, "Length" (in mm) = Worm length Col F,
 "date" = date of experiment, dd-mm-yyyy col G, "time"
 = time experiment started, 24h, hh-mm-ss Col H, "order" = the
 order the earthworms tested in the experiments col I, "Density"
 = Jelly density type, seperated to 1-2 Col J, "PatchNum" = each
 time the jelly changed, by height or density Col K,
 "CumDist_Below_30_sec" (in mm) = cumulative distance until 30
 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to one of the fields
 col L, "CumDist_Below_60_sec" (in mm) = cumulative distance
 until 60 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to one of the
 fields col M, "CumDist_Below_90_sec" (in mm) = cumulative
 distance until 90 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to
 one of the fields col N, "CumDist_Below_120_sec" (in mm) =
 cumulative distance until 120 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to
 minimum time to one of the fields col O, "CumDist_Below_180_sec"
 (in mm) = cumulative distance until 180 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed
 to minimum time to one of the fields col P,
 "CumDist_Below_240_sec" (in mm) = cumulative distance until 240
 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to one of the fields
 col Q, "CumDist_Below_300_sec" (in mm) = cumulative distance
 until 300 secs, or reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to one of the
 fields col R, "CumTotalDist" (in mm) = cumulative distance until
 reaching the glass, fixed to minimum time to one of the fields Col S,
 "TimeToGlassCutoff" (in seconds) = time reaching the glass,
 fixed to minimum time to one of the fields col T, "ReachGlass" =
 factorial, yes or no col U, "Azimuth" = the Azimuth of the last
 location in the experiment, measured only if the worm moved more than 20
 mm radius, or reached the glass col V, "StartDoEnd" (in mm) =
 streight distance from the start of the experiment to the last location
 col W,"StartToFurthest" (in mm) = streight distance from the
 start of the experiment to the further location col X,
 "Straightness" = StartDoEnd/CumTotalDist, measured only if the
 worm moved more than 20 mm radius. If not, fixed to 0.