Birds can 'see' the Earth's magnetic field


	Birds can 'see' the Earth's magnetic field

Silkweaver

5-4-2008 8:59 PM

974 views

tags:

biology, bird's navigation, perception

4 Comments |

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5-4-2008 9:33 PM

natdg

Wow! Good trivia for the day.

5-4-2008 11:53 PM

righthand

I remember a decade(s) ago work done on homing pigeons with similar conclusions too. I suppose that it's the proof that has being missing.

Great clip.

5-5-2008 10:22 AM

papananook

Explains a lot--pops!

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4a2c926f-4a5f-4281-b791-6b7025342e1f/F82E9A9A-26AA-46BE-AF60-B7B0F672A8C4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html">It has been debated for nearly four decades but no one has yet been able to prove it is chemically possible. Now good evidence suggests that birds can actually "see" the lines of the Earth's magnetic field.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html"><A target="ns" href="http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/chem/faculty/Klaus_Schulten.html" linkindex="61" set="yes">Klaus Schulten</A> of the University of Illinois, proposed forty years ago that some animals – including migratory birds – must have molecules in their eyes or brains which respond to magnetism.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html">The problem has been that no one has been able to find a chemical sensitive enough to be influenced by Earth's weak geomagnetic field.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html">Now <A target="ns" href="http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/researchguide/pjhore.html" linkindex="62" set="yes">Peter Hore</A> and colleagues at the University of Oxford have found one.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html">Cryptochromes are a class of light-sensitive proteins found in plants and animals</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html">A few years ago, <A target="ns" href="http://www.member.uni-oldenburg.de/henrik.mouritsen/private_homepage.html" linkindex="64" set="yes">Henrik Mouritsen</A> of the University of Oldenburg in Germany showed that they were present in the retinal neurons of migratory garden warblers, and that these cells were active at dusk, when the warblers were performing magnetic orientation.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/F82E9A9A-26AA-46BE-AF60-B7B0F672A8C4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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