This link gives you a very good overview of the latest arguments about whether Cryptochromes, which are sensitive to magnetic fields and exist in the eyes of birds, help with their navigation. All the great and good involved in this field are quoted. I personally do not think that the quantum effects in a Cryptochrome can exist in the “noisy” high temperature environment of the eye of a bird.
Richard Nissen
editor
I was at a lecture on animal navigation at the Royal Society this week. Nothing world changing, but possibly some useful bits of background regarding navigation. This deals with the mammal brain, but given the similarities in behaviour between mammals and birds one can assume the birds might achieve some similar process. The important brain…
There was a recent article in the media, including the New Scientist and the Times about the migration of the Banded Stilt, which seems to migrate very fast at short notice. The recent interest has been triggered by work done at Deakin University in Victoria Australia by Reece Pedler. Banded Stilts normally live on the…
Please find this PDF which follows a lot of research on Albatrosses. This presentation throws up some really interesting issues. I feel comfortable that albatrosses when they decide to go home follow their sense of direction to their home islands in the South Atlantic: the Crozet Islands and Kerguelen as they fly straight there. However, please…
Cuckoo Migration is one of the great mysteries and to date there is still no agreement on how Cuckoos find their way to the Congo for the winter starting from different locations in Europe. The team at Copenhagen University under Prof Kasper Thorup have been able to tag fledgling cuckoos to follow their migration….
I love this little observation by James Mather… “I was on a ladder clearing the gutters end of last week, and over a period of hours heard a number of flocks of birds gathering to migrate, and I could see them heading off in V-formation. Then, at one point, low cloud closed in, but I…
http://www.2physics.com/2012/10/avian-compass-reloaded.html Please find this interesting piece entitled The Avian Compass Reloaded by Dagomir Kaszlikowski at the Centre for Quantum Technologies, Department of Physics, National University of Singapore. Kaszlikowski talks about the the quantum effect that is required to enable the Cryptochromes in the eye of the European Robin to be sensitive to the earth’s magnetic field….