Bat
Microbats make use of magnetoreception, in that they have a high sensitivity to the Earth's magnetic field, as birds do. Microbats use a polarity-based compass, meaning that they differentiate north from south, unlike birds, which use the strength of the magnetic field to differentiate latitudes, which may be used in long-distance travel. The mechanism is unknown but may involve magnetite particles.
Electron magnetic circular dichroism
In the case of transition metals such as iron, cobalt, and nickel, the absorption spectra for EMCD are usually measured at the L-edge. This corresponds to the excitation of a 2p electron to a 3d state by the absorption of a virtual photon providing the ionisation energy. The absorption is visible as a spectral feature in the electron energy loss spectrum (EELS). Because the 3d electron states are the origin of the magnetic properties of the elements, the spectra contain information on the magnetic properties. Moreover, since the energy of each transition depends on the atomic number, the information obtained is element specific, that is, it is possible to distinguish the magnetic properties of a given element by examining the EMCD spectrum at its characteristic energy (708 eV for iron).