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Source of a Weird Quantum Sense Found in an Actual Migratory Bird For The First Time - ScienceAlert
Jun 23, 2021 54 secs

Long hypothesized as means by which animals might sense the tug of Earth's weak magnetic field, a non-classical response to light has been observed taking place within a protein expressed in the eyes of a night-migratory songbird.

A collaboration between researchers from institutions around the globe put the small bird's cryptochrome protein complex through its paces to see how it responded to being illuminated continuously and in flashes of blue light, both inside and outside of a weak magnetic field.

Earlier this year a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo found a similar protein in humans was capable of responding to blue light in different ways, depending on the strength of a nearby magnetic field.

In other words, the quantum nature of the relationship between two electrons in the right structure of protein can use light to signal different strengths of a magnetic field, even one as weak as Earth's.

The researchers compared the robin's cryptochrome with a similar protein complex copied from chickens (Gallus gallus), a bird not known for taking journeys any more arduous than crossing the occasional road.

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