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Special Molecule Gives Birds a Magnetic Biocompass
Aaron Rowe writes "CORDIS news reports that a team of scientists has identified a family of molecules called cryptochromes that allow migratory birds to sense magnetic fields. Curiously enough, these molecules only function when accompanied by blue light. The article also mentions, 'The researchers also suggest that, as cryptochromes have been strongly conserved throughout evolution, all biological organisms could have the ability to detect magnetic fields, even if they do not use them.'"
Where do I sign up to get these powers enabled? I totally would go for it, even if it is a really lame 6th or 7th sense. Like, if I was lost in the woods with no cell phone and nothing to make a shadow with, and no running water... it could be mildly useful!
Does a line appended to your comment give your post meaning in and of itself, or only in relation to those without?
This is interesting in the sense that these are very low frequency (~0Hz) fields which transfer much less power to the molecule which interacts with it than say visible light which operates at a much higher frequency and is comprised of a coupled electric and magnetic field. Of course the latter has been known to be sensed by sighted animals for quite some time. One way to view this is as an extension of the mechanism of vision- a photon causes a fast (actually one of the fastest reactions known) trans->cis conformational shift in retinol which drives a voltage down the optic nerve... the mechanism described in the FTA is the next step: once a radical is formed, it responds in a magnetic field. Apparently this response is also sensed. Interesting finding!
With a nose the size of mine I'm not looking forward to the polar shift. I'll have to wear kneepads and a helmet.
Task Mangler
It's a very badly written press release. In fact the actual science has zilch to do with birds and everything to do with plants using the same molecule. They described the way light and magnetic fields interact to change the way the plant stem grows, except in plants without the cryptochrome molecule.
Which is just basic, everyday scientific advancement: a very small and excruciatingly dull thing, presented with a tie-in to something more interesting in an attempt to look sexier and get funding. Scientists hate doing it, but if you want to keep doing science, that's what you do.
This article IS news, but only in the narrowest sense: new information. But after you take that new information, tie it in to something more interesting but only indirectly related (which you put at the front of the press release, and the actual new stuff at the end), then summarize it for Slashdot (skipping the stuff at the end), "news" becomes "olds".
One final note: when I call the work "small", I don't mean to dis the grad students who worked thousands of hours tending the plants, measuring them, putting that data into the computer, analyzing that data, probably cutting them open and measuring that... such immense grunt work for a minor advance [promptly blown up into something irrelevant by university's press department] is the heavy-lifting of science. It's gotta be done but it's not glamorous or even interesting.