I thought birds have a little bit of iron enrichment above their beaks, wich tells them the direction?
Comment on Ant smell
Bezzelbob@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This makes me wonder all the weird shit we can’t detect just because of our genes. Like I read about this one women who could smell dementia. And to think birds can see UV light and its theorized they can see the fucking earth’s magnetic field which is how they can tell which why is north and south.
WbrJr@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
efstajas@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They do but it most likely doesn’t! There are experiments where the bird’s beaks had a local anesthesia applied and it had no effect on the bird’s sense of orientation. Instead it seems like it’s most likely something called cryptochrome in the eyes, where a quantum mechanism (radical pair reaction) might be taking place that could generate sense-able electrical signals. There is further evidence for this, like birds being unable to tell when a magnetic field is reversed 180° (which an iron-based compass should be able to), and their sense of direction being effectively turned off by mild RF interference at the right frequency, which also wouldn’t affect an iron compass.
efstajas@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Human brain waves are affected ever so slightly by magnetic fields, some people’s more than others. It might very well be that there’s some kind of subtle subconscious effect of the Earth’s magnetic field on our sense of orientation.
MonkderDritte@feddit.de 4 months ago
Uh, brainwaves are not magnetic.
efstajas@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Of course not, did I say they were?