Slashdot Mirror
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."
Cryptochrome
They give us those nice bright colors
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Cryptochrome away
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.
It's actually a particular color. Those thick black lines you see in redacted documents? They look like ordinary sharpie; but they are actually special-order cryptochrome markers ("Cryptochrome: plaintext to cyphertext with the stroke of a pen")...
Cryptochrome should totally be the name of a band that does Industrial covers of Paul Simon songs.
Why would you need night vision if you are able to survive the day?
Animals with great night vision tend to have it because it is not safe for them to be out and about during the day when the majority of predators are up and about. Consequently a number of predators themselves developed night vision (they didn't develop it, just that predators with night vision were able to find a niche, see below). I'm assuming you mean to ask why humans didn't evolve the abilities, the answer is simple: we are well capable of being active throughout the day, and decide instead to rest at night.
Even though it is possible to push a human's visible spectrum into the IR range, with a long treatment of Vitamin A (http://www.edkeyes.org/blog/050825.html), there is no point in doing so, as it's not needed as a survival tool.
The same goes for microwave radio. We do not need it to be superior to all other animals on the planet, so there has never been a reason for why it would develop.
You have to remember that evolution is the process whereby an animal mutates randomly and a trait appears, if that animal survives to reproduce (not killed off by something) then that trait is passed on to a new generation. If that mutation proves negative to survival, chances are the animal dies and does not get to pass on that trait to next generation.
You can't simply expect a need for night vision to present itself, and in response the body evolves in order to comply with that need.
Chromo = to do with colour
Chrono = to do with time
which is totally what she said
Specifically, females with a 4th set of cones.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
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.
Specifically, females with a 4th set of cones.
I remember the female from Total Recall with the 3rd cone, but I never knew there were women with four sets(!). That's eight, right?
Who cares about UV sight?
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
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.
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.
An armed society is a polite society.
Then why are Americans so rude compared to Canadians? And why has not American courtesy increased with the expansion of concealed and open carry laws in the past decade or two?
Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
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