Birds May Use Quantum Mechanics To Migrate South
Flock of Birds donjd2 Scientists have long speculated that birds navigate the globe using magnetism; however, a new study suggests that quantum entanglement indeed enables birds to "see" the Earth's magnetic field as if it were a pattern of colors. Quantum entanglement describes a phenomenon that links a pair of electrons so that either one of them "knows" what the other is doing, regardless of their distance apart. According to a paper published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria have designed experiments testing the theory that birds use a molecule called cryptochrome, located in their eyes, to sense magnetic fields. Prior to this experiment, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, singled out cryptochrome as a candidate for the molecule that determines how birds sense magnetic fields, as it was known that cryptochrome electrons typically come in entangled pairs. Movement...