--- title: Dolphins Are Attracted to Magnets, Study Says description: According to a French study released Monday, dolphins are attracted to magnets. Platonically, of course. canonical: https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-30T13:04:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:28.758Z og:title: Dolphins are Attracted to Magnets, Says Study og:description: Where does this fit into their plot for world domination? og:url: https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5760fa186523bf4/6986a619e53aba6dbc4d4aee/133103067.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 133103067 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dolphins are Attracted to Magnets, Says Study twitter:description: Where does this fit into their plot for world domination? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5760fa186523bf4/6986a619e53aba6dbc4d4aee/133103067.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dolphins Are Apparently Attracted to Magnets by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Sep 30, 2014 1:04 PM UTC  Dolphin in aquarium of Barcelona Dolphin in aquarium of Barcelonavdorse—Getty Images/Flickr RF by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Sep 30, 2014 1:04 PM UTC According to a [French study released Monday](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-014-1231-x), dolphins are attracted to magnets. Platonically, of course. To find out if dolphins are magnetosensitive—or able to sense Earth’s magnetic field—researchers tested how six bottleneck dolphins swimming freely independently reacted to barrels containing both magnetized and demagnetized blocks. --- > “” --- If the findings hold up to scrutiny, it would be a momentous discovery. Although many animals are suspected to orient themselves using the Earth’s magnetic pull, there’s precious little proof that this is the case. [Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine](http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2012/apr/27/1) concluded in 2012 that pigeons have magnetosensitive GPS cells in their brains. We don’t quite know where this fits into [dolphins’ plot to take over the world,](http://www.theonion.com/articles/dolphins-evolve-opposable-thumbs,284/) but now that they might be working with the pigeons, we are utterly terrified. Dolphins Are Attracted to Magnets, Study Says ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/"},"headline":"Dolphins Are Apparently Attracted to Magnets","datePublished":"2014-09-30T13:04:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:28.758Z","description":"Where does this fit into their plot for world domination?","url":"https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5760fa186523bf4/6986a619e53aba6dbc4d4aee/133103067.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5760fa186523bf4/6986a619e53aba6dbc4d4aee/133103067.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"133103067","caption":"133103067","creditText":"vdorse—Getty Images/Flickr RF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3449290/dolphins-are-attracted-to-magnets-study/","name":"Dolphins Are Apparently Attracted to Magnets"}}]}] ```