Jun 27, 2019
Scientists have long wondered how birds “read” Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. Some think entangled particles in birds’ eyes play a role.
"The key, it seems, isn’t the strength of the geomagnetic field, but the sensitivity of the system that’s detecting it. And in the eyes of some birds, there appears to exist such a system, built around a light-sensing protein called cryptochrome. Cryptochrome is common in both plants and animals, but researchers believe that birds make a special variant of this protein that operates as a molecular compass."