cover of episode Quantum Birds

Quantum Birds

2025/2/14
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Annie McEwen: 我在宾夕法尼亚州的山上帮助捕捉一些迁徙的猫头鹰,并有幸看到了猫头鹰的眼睛内部结构,这让我开始思考鸟类迁徙的奥秘。我发现鸟类可能通过一种叫做隐色素的蛋白质来感知地球磁场,这种蛋白质在量子力学的层面上运作,使鸟类能够感知到微弱的磁场。我对这个发现感到非常兴奋,因为这可能解释了鸟类如何进行长途迁徙。 Scott Weidensaul: 我向Annie McEwen介绍了北锯猫头鹰,并向她展示了如何观察猫头鹰的眼睛。我解释说,这些猫头鹰是最小的猫头鹰,并且它们有巨大的眼睛。我帮助她了解鸟类的身体结构,以及鸟类迁徙的奥秘。 Henrik Mouritsen: 我研究了鸟类如何感知地球磁场,并发现隐色素在其中起着关键作用。我解释说,隐色素是一种存在于鸟类眼睛中的蛋白质,当光线照射到它时,会产生一对自由基,这些自由基对磁场非常敏感。我认为鸟类通过这种方式“看到”地球磁场,从而进行导航。虽然量子力学的概念很难理解,但它可能为鸟类迁徙提供了一个合理的解释。

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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 McEwenProduced by -  Annie McEwenOriginal music and sound design contributed by -  Annie McEwenwith field recording and reporting help by - Jeremy S. BloomFact-checking by -  Natalie Middletonand 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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