Quantum Birds

Key takeaways

Northern saw-whet owls are essential to study for understanding migration patterns, and they exemplify the charm of the avian world.
Birds utilize a variety of navigational tools including stars, the sun, and possibly even the Earth's magnetic field, showcasing their incredible ability to find their way.
Quantum mechanics may hold the key to understanding how birds sense magnetic fields, as proposed by Klaus Schulten's radical pair hypothesis, demonstrating the intersection of biology and physics.
The discovery of cryptochrome molecules in birds' eyes opens up a new understanding of how birds navigate using light and magnetic fields, suggesting they can visualize magnetic cues.
Birds possess unique senses that allow them to experience the world in ways beyond human comprehension, suggesting a rich, colorful existence filled with meanings subtle to our understanding.

Summary

Catching Owls: A Journey Begins

The episode kicks off with host Latif Nasir and producer Annie McEwen recounting her experience at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania, where volunteers tag migratory northern saw-whet owls. The segment highlights the charm and unique features of these owls, painting a picture of their night-time escapades and the excitement of capturing them for study. The volunteers set up nets and audio equipment to lure the owls, discussing various aspects of bird migration and the purpose behind tagging them for research.

The Mystery of Bird Migration

The discussion shifts from the owl-catching event to the larger mystery of how birds navigate during migration. Annie and Latif delve into the methods birds use to find their way, from celestial navigation using stars and the sun to more mysterious abilities like sensing the Earth's magnetic field. They explore the longstanding debate among scientists about how birds can navigate so accurately without obvious tools.

Quantum Mechanics and Bird Navigation

The podcast introduces an intriguing quantum angle to the discussion on avian navigation, focusing on Klaus Schulten's hypothesis from the 1970s about how radical pairs of entangled electrons in a bird's eye may help in sensing the Earth's magnetic field. The conversation navigates complex quantum concepts and illustrates how these quantum processes might activate based on the light that birds see, leading to different spins in the electrons related to direction.

Unveiling the Quantum Connection

Returning to the present, the podcast reveals advances supporting Schulten's hypothesis, thanks to research led by Thorsten Ritz and others. They highlight the role of cryptochrome molecules in birds’ eyes that can react to light and magnetic fields, allowing birds to effectively ‘see’ magnetic fields. Participants discuss the implications of this breathtaking theory, suggesting that birds possess not only an extraordinary sense of direction but also a unique perception of reality that remains largely invisible to human understanding.

Reflections and Revelations

As the episode concludes, Annie and Latif muse over the beauty and complexity of nature. They express a sense of wonder about the hidden competencies of birds, contemplating the unseen dimensions of the universe they experience. Listeners are left with a poetic view of bird migration that combines science, wonder, and a glimpse into a world filled with colors and signals unreachable by human senses.

Show notes

Annie McEwen went to a mountain in Pennsylvania to help catch some migratory owls. Then Scott Weidensaul peeled back the owl’s feathery face disc, so that she could look at the back of its eyeball. No owls were harmed in the process, but this brief glimpse into the inner workings of a bird sent her off on a journey to a place where fleshy animal business bumps into the mathematics of subatomic particles. With help from Henrik Mouristen, we hear how one of the biggest mysteries in biology might finally find an answer in the weird world of quantum mechanics, where the classical rules of space and time are upended, and electrons dance to the beat of an enormous invisible force field that surrounds our planet.

A very special thanks to Rosy Tucker, Eric Snyder, Holly Merker, and Seth Benz at the Hog Island Audubon Camp. Thank you to the owl-tagging volunteers Chris Bortz, Cassie Bortz, and Cheryl Faust at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Thank you to Jeremy Bloom and Jim McEwen for helping with the owls. Thank you to Isabelle Andreesen at the University of Oldenburg and thank you to Andrew Farnsworth at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, as well as Nick Halmagyi and Andrew Otto. Thank you everyone!

EPISODE CREDITS:

Reported by - Annie McEwen
Produced by - Annie McEwen
Original music and sound design contributed by - Annie McEwen
with field recording and reporting help by - Jeremy S. Bloom
Fact-checking by - Natalie Middleton
and Edited by - Becca Bressler

EPISODE CITATIONS:

Places -
Check out Hog Island Audubon Camp at https://hogisland.audubon.org/. If you like birds, this is the place for you. The people, the food (my god the food), the views, the hiking, and especially the BIRDS are incredible.

And if it’s raptors you’re specifically interested in, I highly recommend visiting Hawk Mountain Sanctuary www.hawkmountain.org. You can watch these amazing birds wheeling high above a stunning forested valley, if you’re into that sort of thing… and maybe if you’re lucky you’ll even catch sight of some teeny weeny owls.

Books
Scott Weidensaul will make you love birds if you don’t already. Check out his books and go see him talk! http://www.scottweidensaul.com/

Website
If you want to learn more about the fascinating and wildly interdisciplinary field of magnetoreception in birds, you can dig into the work of Henrick Mouritsen at the University of Oldenburg and his colleagues at the University of Oxford here: https://www.quantumbirds.eu/

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