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
The Economist have just published a letter I wrote to them regarding a recent academic article on Viking sunstones. In the following letter I put forward what I believe to be an original argument on this popular subject. I have no way of proving this theory, which puts me in good company with the scientists…
In January 2021 I had the opportunity to have another test of my theory that migratory animals (fledgling cuckoos) use an innate sense of direction to find their way to their destination. I did a zoom presentation to some of the best dowsers in Britain and asked them to track the routes followed by fledgling…
I was delighted to be able to attend the animal navigation conference at Reading University in May 2008. I attended as a dowser with the theory that animals can and do follow dowsable clues including earth energy lines as an aid to navigation. We all know that dowsers (water diviners) can find water. However what…
Phenotypic response to environmental cues, orientation and migration costs in songbirds flying halfway around the world by Heiko Schmaljohann et al. A polar system of intercontinental bird migration by Prof Thomas Alerstam et al. Cross-hemisphere migration of a 25 g songbird by Franz Bairlein et al. One of our heroes Prof Tomas Alerstam has directed us to this fascinating paper by Heiko…
Click here for Wikipedia’s explanation of the Arctic Tern.
A summary 2011 The two prevailing ideas on long distance navigation are based around two ideas: Magnetic cues Olfactory cues (smell) It is clear that near home animals, birds and humans build up a map of their neighbourhood with remembered sights smells and landmarks. This is all mediated by the hippocampus. There is some evidence…
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