Slashdot Mirror
Bird Navigation Based On Quantum Zeno Effect
KentuckyFC writes "How birds use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate has puzzled researchers for decades. In recent years, a growing body of evidence has pointed to the possibility that a weak magnetic field can influence the outcome of a certain type of chemical reaction involving the recombination of pairs of ions in bird retinas. The trouble is that the ion recombination is known to happen too quickly for the Earth's weak magnetic field to have any effect. Now it looks as if the quantum Zeno effect explains all, says one researcher (abstract). This is the watched-pot-never-boils effect in which the act of observing a quantum system maintains it for longer than expected. That's extraordinary news because it means a quantum sensor is determining the macroscopic behavior of living birds."
... So says a 4 day old slashdot article. Next week we're going to have an article on how the sinking of the titanic influenced thermal currents in the atlantic, reducing El Nino's effect in the pacific, thus causing plants to flower before bees have come completely out of hibernation, leading to starvation.
Clearly, since this is the most recent theory, all previous theories are deeply flawed.
moox. for a new generation.
Wow. I want to see the full paper.
If this is for real, there's a whole new class of electronic devices waiting to be developed. The Zeno effect has been observed experimentally, but only down near absolute zero. If it can be observed at room temperature, it could be useful.
Chlorophyll works by means of Resonance Energy Transfer and that's also a quantum effect - though admittedly, not as cool as the bird navigation thing.
I'd be willing to bet that this didn't evolve in birds. A lot of animals perform long distance migrations. In fact, I bet that this sense is found in most animals. We apes are probably the exception. We probably lost it while swinging from trees. But the genes are probably still there. So, one day you might be able to turn this on in your children.
What color are most roads? What do dark colors do in sunlight? What happens when air heats up? What's the easiest way for a bird to stay aloft?
Lets all say it together...correllation != causality.
because every seonsor has to obey the rules of quantum mechanics. The only difference being which theory is sufficient to explain a certain effect.
Even if pointing this out may be a bit boring, people should stop mystifiying Science and speak of it as cavemen would grunt of a lightning storm. There's absolutely nothing mysterious about Science, that's the whole point of Science to begin with.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
But when the researchers looked for this, shouldn't that looking have caused the metaphorical pot to be watched thus inducing the effect, or had no one tried to measure this simply because they knew the reaction didn't take long enough (or shouldn't, ignoring quantum mechanics)?
I didn't have any serious courses on quantum-anything, but I think you are taking this way to"philosophically". "Observation" here actually just means interaction with a nearby atom.
I think that the idea is that the atom is in an "undefined" state (or rather, multiple states at once), and that having an interaction (which should depend on the state) forces it to chose between states. Once this happens (in the bird's retina), I don't think any further interaction can affect anything, and certainly not something as indirect as a human looking at the bird.
Confusion arise because of the words "observation", "retina" and looking" in the same topic.
That said, I had the impression that those kind of quantum weirdness (like the living-dead cat) were a good hint that those thing can never scale up to act uppon the "regular" world, were everything is a result of statistics (like air pressure which is the statistical sum of random movement). A good exemple is how intricated atoms could theorically convert information at faster than light speed, but if you actually want to use it then the observation equipement needed will keep you under light speed (and it's not something you can get around). So if this turns out to be true, I will be quite amased.
Bonus questions: The article said that had proved this by using a strong electric field to alter the way this reaction goes. Would it be possible to inject something into the birds that would prevent them from "watching" this reaction, so it would go at it's "normal" speed?
Good idea! Let's stick the large electromagnet in the bird's retina, then watch to see if it's flying paterns are different!Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
"If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are." Zen saying
Apparently the effect is sensitive to only a narrow window of magnetic field strengths, so if something significantly affects the field then the birds get lost. We've had birds through several reversals which argues that birds won't go extinct when it happens again.
Quantum effect this, quantum effect that. The fact that your head doesn't fall off is a quantum effect, without which electrons, protons and neutrons couldn't possibly form stable structures. Everything on a small enough scale is a "quantum effect". Saying that chlorophyll works by means of a quantum effect is like saying that computers rely on a one-is-bigger-than-zero effect.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.