Sailors of the Air -- the Humble Robin
How does the little robin red-breast use advanced scientific principles to navigate?
How does the tiny robin redbreast manage to navigate its way hundreds of miles across the earth, to successfully arrive at its breeding ground?
This has been the subject of much research. Professor Jim Al-Khalili, of the University of Surrey, and Professor Henrik Mouritsen of the University of Oldenberg, discuss one such experiment in a YouTube presentation entitled 'Bird Migration and Quantum Entanglement.'
Professor Mouritsen conducted an experiment to determine if robins could sense the incredibly faint magnetic field of the earth. He found that covering over the left eye of the robin with a head-mask, the bird lost its compass in the right side of the brain. And covering the right eye turned it off for the left side of the brain.
The robin, however, could very definitely sense, and make use of, the earth's magnetic field.
Only the advanced fields of quantum physics, combined with organic chemistry and micro-biology, can explain what is happening with the robin's amazing navigation ability.
One theory puts it this way: The energy in photons of light is enough to generate chemical reactions in the robin's eye in a protein called cryptochrome, that enables the use of the earth's magnetic field. Some scientists are not fully on-board with this theory, as an article from Science Direct explains. This article does not, however, provide a comprehensive solution to the bird's sensitivity to the earth's magnetic field, and reinforces the view that some of the mechanics of this ability remain a "mystery" and that "biology has defied expectation on more than one occasion."
This article concludes that multiple living organisms have this ability: "The list of magnetosensitive species includes: bacteria, prokaryotes, honey bees, cockroaches, newts, turtles, rodents, lobsters, fish, bats, and both migratory and non-migratory birds."
The popular current view is that photons of light become the power cell for the robin's navigation compass. A chemical balance in the robin's eye, which can tip one way or another, is influenced in a given direction by the earth's magnetic field; something requiring an extremely sensitive receptor. This "given direction" apparently helps the bird to navigate.
The robin is therefore using multiple coordinated scientific disciplines to accomplish successful migration. As Professor Jim Al-Khalili puts it, the way this is done "defies common sense."
The mechanism that the robin employs is called Quantum Entanglement. This is a complicated link between two or more particles (see below), no matter how far apart those particles might be.
This mechanism is also discussed in Physicist Matt O'Dowd's YouTube presentation (PBS SpaceTime).
Even the famous physicist Albert Einstein found the idea of Quantum Entanglement so absurd, he refused to believe it was real. He published a paper in 1935 (called 'Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality be Considered Complete?') arguing that it was impossible.
However, Einstein was wrong. It has since been proved many times to be a genuine and very real phenomenon. Therefore, we might say, Einstein was wrong, but the humble robin redbreast was right!
Physicist Jim Al-Khalili Explains Entanglement
Professor Jim Al-Khalili, in this YouTube video, explains how it is believed quantum entanglement works in his discussion of the robin's navigational ability; but he does not explain how the robin has learned to use it. He calls this a "mystery."
Would you know how to make use of quantum entanglement? Do you understand what this is? Or do you rather depend on an electronic GPS system (which has been developed using intelligence and coordinated planning)? How does the robin "know" how to use this very complex (and, so far, theoretical) navigation technique?
Do robin's create this effect by themselves? Do they understand the principles of quantum mechanics and entanglement, and know how to make use of chemical reactions with photons and cryptochrome, and thus intentionally use the earth's magnetic field to navigate? The one thing we know for certainty is: robins actually navigate using the earth's magnetic field, but the mechanism is not fully understood.
Do you think the phrase "Intentional Planning, Order and Arrangement" has anything to do with this phenomenon?
© Copyright 2024, Michael A. Barber. All rights reserved.
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