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Some Birds Can See Magnetic Fields
jamie found a post on the Not Exactly Rocket Science blog on research indicating that some birds can literally see magnetic fields, but only if the vision in their right eye is sharp (abstract at Current Biology). "The magnetic sense of birds was first discovered in robins in 1968, and its details have been teased out ever since. Years of careful research have told us that the ability depends on light and particularly on the right eye and the left half of the brain. The details still aren’t quite clear but, for now, the most likely explanation involves a molecule called cryptochrome. Cryptochrome is found in the light-sensitive cells of a bird’s retina and scientists think that it affects just how sensitive those cells are. ... The upshot is that magnetic fields put up a filter of light or dark patches over what a bird normally sees. These patches change as the bird turns and tilts its head, providing it with a visual compass made out of contrasting shades."
anyone else get the impression that "Cryptochrome" should be the name of some time based encryption system when they first read it?
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
Color Me Loud !!
Call me Purple Haze !!
some birds can literally see magnetic fields, but only if the vision in their right eye is sharp
Given that some birds (particularly raptors) have insanely sharp distance vision, that's not really that much to ask. Any animal that can spot a rabbit on the ground hundreds of feet away has some amazing vision.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
augmented reality at its best.
Makes me think what other "natural augmented reality senses" are possible, or even already exist in other species.
I'd love to see a Tech version of this. I may be completely ignorant and it may already exist but it seems like, since we now know the science of how to see magnetic fields, we could develop an artificial "eye" so to speak, that could do this. It would be neat to look at power lines or just browse the city and see the magnetic fields cast off by different infrastructure.
lol i knew a guy whose online handle was purpose haze. so calling him purple haze... would be normal?
Maybe some biologists can answer this.. but why haven't humans or other mammalian species evolved to see/detect/transmit infrared or microwave radio? It seems that long neurons could act as conductor antennas. No evolutionary advantage? Just the night sensing possibilities alone seem worthwhile.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Cryptochrome should totally be the name of a band that does Industrial covers of Paul Simon songs.
So, not only can birds see a broader range of colours (they can see ultraviolet), a more detailed spectrum than we can (e.g., blue jays can tell the difference between "yellow" from a red-green mixture and "pure" yellow) thanks to having 4 or 5 types of colour-sensitive cells in their retinas (humans and other primates have 3), and having higher density of light-sensitive cells (=higher resolution), but they can also see magnetic fields?
I feel so cheated by evolution.
And if that doesn't tell you some brains are different from others, within what
is apparently the same species ( maybe Feynman was an alien in disguise ? )
then nothing will.
Did you know some birds have to eyelids. My parrot, even if he closes both of them, I can still see he pupil behind his lids.
Additionally, he likes to keep his right eye closed alot of the time. I thought he might have a problem with it. The doctor said it was normal.
..encompassing article from /.
Just wanted to needle the editors a bit.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
This sounds somewhat like what Brandon Sanderson described in his Mistborn books. If you were "mistborn", you could (after "burning" certain metals) see blue lines extending from yourself to metal objects around you, which you could then pull or push away from you.
Overall, they were pretty good books. I'd recommended them.
-chris
You leave blind--blind-- BLIND.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
This story is only about 2 years old - geez.
Challenge - Hack a bird: create large magnetic field with proper orientation to temporarily blind it!
In a fight between Quailman and Magneto, who would win?
Some humans seem to be able to see a little further into UV, but nothing like chickens or certain insects.
In WWII the OSS recruited elderly volunteers with cataracts who could see into the UV range. They were posted as coast watchers for communication with submarines and landing parties.
One of the best reads around for the real world of spy tech is Stanley Lovell's Of Spies and Stratagems. Lovell was the OSS "Moriarty" - a later generation would see him "Q," and no less an enthusiastic, inventive and deadly prankster.
I would love to see Stephin Merritt perform live.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
If the temporal resolution of the cytochrome signal matches that of "normal" vision, birds with this ability can likely see individual oscillations of EM fields up to ~50Hz. What do faster-oscillating fields look like to such a bird? Do they interfere with the bird's normal vision? Strobe lights come to mind as an analogue.
As a child, I found that if I were to walk under/near certain transformers, I started to see black waves at the very edge of my vision. I couldn't really describe it as they tended to be fairly quick, and explaining to somone just what waves of black at the edge of your vision would look like was/is difficult.
I grew up near a steel mill, and their furnaces were electric, and on a hill near where I lived there was this MASSIVE collection of electrical equipment (Transformers, relays, etc). If I were to walk along the outer perimiter of this area, I would see those waves again.
I've noticed this my entire life, and it happens rarely, but is always associated with electrical equipment. I also got the same 'waves' when I accidentally grabbed a makeshift fishing worm extractor (essentially an AC cord attached to a long metal rod you stick in the ground) I DEFINITELY saw the waves in my vision then (and nearly was electrocuted).
Now, is this something that other people have in the presence of very large em fields? Or did I stick a nail up my nose when I was a toddler and forgot about it?
It's not magic in any case, so I don't think I could go for Randi's offer right?
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
inducted to you.
This can explain why birds never stop moving their heads. I always thought they were scanning the area for possible hazards, food or companions, or positioning their heads to receive sounds better, but this gives a new possibility to their constant head tilting (which I find adorable by the way).
Birds are so underrated by us humans.
Were these European swallows, or African swallows?
include $sig;
1;
"Orientate" is a non-word, or bad slang at best. (The correct word is "orient.") It's tough to take the article seriously when you can't get through the first sentence without a middle-school English error.
I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidinger's_brush
It looks like an hourglass shape, you can see it on an lcd if you set a uniform colour.
the more you know. also humans (swim) can see into what we probably consider the near ultraviolet after consuming substituted amphetamines. its quite amazing, or so im told. (swim) spent hours looking at a flower bed of what normally look like uniform white flowers and found that each was a unique shade of unearthly violet/purple, like a tiny spaceship's landingpad (bees rock).
You've got me thinking. Goggles that let me see magnetic fields haven't changed reality(*), they've just changed my ability to perceive reality. All this "augmented reality" stuff should be called augmented perception.
(*) Assuming objectivism. I'm talking as a scientists. All you subjectivists can go have a party somewhere else.
i believe humans see more gradations of green than other colours, certainly more than blue. so it would make sense if its because we are more sensitive to the subtle contrasts within the green false image.
If you want to prove birds can see magnetic fields strapping clear translucent goggles on their heads probably should not have been your first choice.
What you should have done to test your theory is to generate your own magnetic fields and observe the birds response to them and correlate behaviors. This is not rocket science.
This is especially critical in light of countless other "studies" have shown many animals including birds and even humans with proper training (google halingers brush) can see polarization axis of sunlight and use it as visual cues for direction.
All this study shows is that the people who conducted it are total idiots.
That would have been funnier had I spelled his name right. Well, unless I was subconsciously referring to "Czech Norris", the secret Warsaw Pact project to create a superbeing to rival that similarly named hero from the West....
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
Embed permanent magnets in wind turbine blades to scare birds away.
Have gnu, will travel.
Next thing we'll discover is that birds also have a built in accelerometer and Bluetooth....or Blue Beak .
I suspect having Iron in your body has something to do with it.
I was walking through a mall and was nearly knocked on my arse once by a weird field I entered. It felt a bit like bringing two magnets close together N to N. My girlfriend felt it too and we both reeled back a step and looked at each other.
Turns out, there was a giant old black and white TV screen from the seventies hanging overhead and displaying video from some security feed. It was cool, because we could walk in and out of the field and really feel it strongly each time. I was so intrigued that I wanted to call people over to check it out, but I was also feeling really woozy and the only people around were old ladies and other K Mart Shopper types who wouldn't have understood the significance.
I don't react that way most of the time, but I'd been meditating and doing lots of energy work that month. My perceptions were pretty raw and being in a mall was quite overwhelming. I ended up sitting outside to breathe it off. That's the downside to opening yourself up; the sickness of society can really burn you out. I think most people just have strong blocks in place so that they don't notice this stuff normally, like being around a bad smell for a long time makes it sort of fade in the perceptions.
-FL
I've been seeing this for as long as I can remember! I never knew what it was, or if anyone else saw it. I recall trying to ask my parents about it when I was just a wee lad but they didn't understand what I was talking about so I never really asked anyone about it again.
I can see it very vividly anywhere in the sky, any time of day. It's pretty awesome to finally understand it!
Makes sense. There's one close and in clear view from my place, and birds NEVER land on it.
when I was about eight years old. Did not see anything similar when I was at a power transfer station (huge transformers, relays, )
It's called a haptic vest. You wear a compass that triggers vibrators in the vest. As you turn it always signals the same side. Voila, you always "see" North.
The animals that see near UV are all short lived. UV tends to damage tissues. Short lived creatures die before they get retina damage, creatures like a hominid with a 30 year life expectancy would go blurry/blind prematurely. The lens of the human eye is actually a touch yellowish, it is specifically designed to keep harmful UV out of the delicate inner workings of the eye.