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The mystery behind how birds navigate might finally be solved: it's not the iron in their beaks providing a magnetic compass, but a protein in their eyes that lets them "see" Earth's magnetic fields.
These findings come courtesy of two papers - one studying robins, the other zebra finches.
The fancy eye protein is called Cry4, and it's part of a class of proteins called cryptochromes - photoreceptors sensitive to blue light, found in both plants and animals. These proteins play a role in regulating circadian rhythms.
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Birds Can See Earth's Magnetic Fields, And Now We Know How That's Possible
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Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by darkfeline on Monday September 03 2018, @09:23AM (1 child)
I actually went and read the article.
Basically, through experimentation it was discovered that birds can't see magnetic fields without blue light. So they went and measured the amounts of proteins that react to blue light, and decided that one of them seemed like the most likely since the amount of it stayed constant during a day and increased during migration season.
It's a far cry from "knowing how birds see magnetic fields". Being able to sense magnetic fields is one thing, being able to see them is another. Amateur thinking follows:
You can only see photons. Magnetic fields do not emit photons passively. Magnetic fields also do not affect photons since photons are not charged. As far as I know, there is no currently known physics that allows for seeing magnetic fields.
Then I read the research page, which was much more interesting.
Basically, it is hypothesized that the chemical reaction involved in seeing blue light creates a radical pair that aligns with the magnetic field and is somehow sensed by the bird, possibly via vision.
Thus, it isn't so much "seeing" magnetic fields as blue light entering the eyes enables some method of sensing the magnetic field centered on the eyes. This may manifest as some light or dark pattern in vision, or some kind of tingly birdy sense. So this wouldn't let us create technology to sense magnetic fields at a distance.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 03 2018, @04:08PM
> Magnetic fields do not emit photons passively.
Um.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_field [wikipedia.org]