Well not for sure, but looking likely that this is the case. Very curious
paper published today shedding light on how birds and some insects navigate
using magnetic fields.
The use of magnetic fields in navigation by animals has been known for decades
but the mode of signal transduction has remained a deep mystery. About 1978
Klaus Schulten is a German American computational biophysicist proposed that
quantum entanglement of a radical-pair system could underlie a biochemical
compass-- an editor is Science thought a less bold scientist would have
"designed this piece of work for the waste basket."
The paper was indeed NOT published in Science.
It looks increasingly likely that this may indeed underlie how the signal from
the avian cryptochromes are produced.
So in brief light can create entangled electron pairs within the crypotchrome
though radical pairs can also be generated by the light-independent dark
reoxidation of the flavin cofactor by molecular oxygen through the formation of
a spin-correlated FADH-superoxide radical pairs.
The ambient magnetic field interacts differentially with the entangled
electron pairs depending on their spin which in turn affects the lifetime of
the activated cryptochrome--and then influences the visual signals. Thus the
bird actually "sees" the magnetic fields.
This seemed very bizarre at least in part as entangled electron pairs can be
created the lab but the T1/2 of them is exquisitely short except near absolute
zero. The paper today suggests these effects within the protein environment
are indeed quite long enough to influence photochemical reactions.
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/18/6/063007?fromSearchPage=true
Oh, here is something easier to read:
http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/pia-entanglement.cfm
So the bird outside you window may be navigating using "spooky action through a
distance." You can't make this stuff up.
Wish I had this ability to navigate the one-way cow paths of Boston, Mike
--
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