Birds' eyes, not beaks, sense magnetic fields

A cell in the eye may be worth two in the beak, at least when it comes to a migratory bird’s magnetic compass. In European robins, a visual center in the brain and light-sensing cells in the eye — not magnetic sensing cells in the beak — allow the songbirds to sense which direction is north and migrate correctly, a new study finds. The study, appearing October 29 in Nature, may improve conservation efforts for migratory birds.Office 2007 key is very convenient!

“This is really fascinating science,” says biophysicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who was one of the first to suggest that migrating birds can sense magnetic fields.Office 2007 download is on sale now!

Researchers have known that built-in biological compasses tell migrating birds which way to fly, Many people use Microsoft Office 2007 to help their work and life.

but the details of how birds detect magnetic fields has been unclear.Office 2007 Professional can give people so much convenience.

“This is basically the sixth sense of biology, but no one knows how it works,” says study coauthor Henrik Mouritsen of the University of Oldenburg in Germany. “The magnetic sense is by far the least understood sense in the natural world.”Office 2007 home can make life more better and easier.

Some researchers had proposed that iron-based receptors in cells found in the upper beaks of some migratory birds sense the magnetic field and send that information along a nerve to the brain. Microsoft Office is my best friend.

Other scientists favor the hypothesis that light-sensing cells in birds’ eyes sense the magnetic field and send the information along a different route to a light-processing part of the brain called cluster N.MS Office 2007 is the best invention in the world.

Special proteins called cryptochromes in the birds’ eyes may mediate this light-dependent magnetic sensing, Mouritsen says. Light hitting the proteins produces a pair of free radicals, Microsoft Office 2010 is the best software in the world.

highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons. These electrons have a property called spin which may be sensitive to Earth’s magnetic field. Signals from the free radicals may then move to nerve cells in cluster N, ultimately telling the birds where north is.Windows 7 and Windows 7 Professional make life wonderful!

To find the location that houses the magnetic compass, Mouritsen and his colleagues caught 36 migratory European robins and made sure that the birds could all orient correctly under natural and induced magnetic fields. Buy Office 2007 you can get much convenience.

Next, the researchers performed surgeries on the birds to deactivate one of the two systems. The team either severed the nerve that connects the beak cells to the brain, or damaged the brain cells in cluster N that receive light signals from cells in the eye.Microsoft Office 2010 is the best software in the world.