Magnetite is the most magnetic natural metal on earth.

磁铁矿是地球上最具磁性的天然金属。

This magnetite basically helps them to orient in the right direction.

这种磁铁矿基本上可以帮助它们以正确的方向定向。

Like peanuts, magnetite is more dense and should sit at the bottom.

像花生一样，磁铁矿的密度更大，所以应该位于底部。

Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial protein.

果然，" 棋盘" 上的固定蛋白质区域产生了成群的磁铁颗粒，并由细菌蛋白质控制在相应位置。

The first theory is that animals have tiny magnetite particles in their bodies that act as magnetic receptors.

第一个理论是，动物体内有微小的磁铁矿颗粒，作为磁感受器发挥作用。

Which, again, are magnetite. Over here are iron oxide.

又是磁铁矿。这里是氧化铁。

A lot of homing pigeons also have what is called magnetite in their beaks and magnetoreceptors in their nervous system or brains.

很多信鸽的喙中也有所谓的磁铁矿，神经系统或大脑中有磁感受器。

The same process could also explain why volcano scientists find that the mineral magnetite rises to higher layers in Earth's crust than would be expected.

同样的过程也可以解释为什么火山科学家发现矿物磁铁矿在地壳中能上升到比预期更高的层。

For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain (20 microns across) is huge by modern computing standards.

首先对于可用的存储器来说，那些磁铁颗粒的磁性还不够强大，并且每个区域的尺寸（20微米的跨度）对现在计算机标准来说太大了。

Magnetic fields pass invisibly through the entire body so researchers don't know exactly where these magnetite particles or cryptochromes would be attached to particular cells and so mistakes are made all the time.

磁场无形地穿过整个身体，所以研究人员不知道这些磁铁矿颗粒或隐色体会准确地附着在特定的细胞上，所以导致犯错。

The researchers took their inspiration from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium that is sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks of magnetite, a form of iron oxide.

研究人员从趋磁细菌上获得了灵感，由于该细菌内部存在铁氧化物磁性颗粒，所以对地球磁场非常敏感。