Plants Shy to Show Magnetism

Plants may produce tiny magnetic fields, especially when their flowers bloom, according to researchers from UC Berkeley who have been attempting to monitor “titan arum,” the largest flower in the world.
Using magnetometers — sensitive magnetic field detectors which can measure magnetic fields nearly a billion times lower than that of Earth’s surface — the Berkeley scientists hope to eventually record biomagnetism in plants.
While studies of animals have shown them to produce small magnetic fields due to heart and brain activity, plants have proven to be much more mysterious and uncooperative.
Interferences from external magnetic fields such as Berkeley’s BART trains or passing lab visitors have been proven problematic. The scientists cannot record subtle magnetic activity in plants while these other actors are present.
In order to capture any kind of magnetic field coming from plants, researchers hope to figure out how to completely segregate plants from outside producers of magnetic fields. They also intend to increase the sensitivity of their measuring instruments by 10 to 100 fold.