the last Neurocolloquium (24th July) of this summer semester was about magnetic orientation in birds and other animals. some animals just have it all! Homing Pigeons seem to be endowed with the ability to use both sources of geomagnetic information i.e. magnetic inclination and polarity which provide them with positional and directional information respectively. moreover, they are also bestowed with both types of magneto-reception (which are highly hypothetical & controversial): 1) the use of magnetite-like structures, which have apparently been found within the neurofilaments in the skin of their upper beaks that allow ambient magnetic field to be picked up and 2) the light-dependent photo-pigment process that involves the conversion of singlet electrons to their triplet stage when the alignment of the pigment molecules are not perpendicular to the magnetic field.
(if you didn't quite get the above?don't worry! it's only theory and jargon i jotted down during the seminar.)
it is known that many species of birds rely on such magnetic orientation for their migration, however some insects, reptiles, and mammals also adopt the use of a magnetic compass. interestingly, primates don't seem to belong to such a group of magneto-sensing creatures, but it's probably a blessing, for imagine we might get physically repelled by those to whom we might be "phermonongically" attracted or we will never be able to get to places where the magnetic field is not appropriate to attract our presence! and the world might contain spinning humans, desperately trying to get a grip on their bearings!
posted by ~overacuppa~ on Thursday, 31 July, 2003 at 00:32 hrshaha....so funny. i really like the last part of this entry. Though the first part got me totally lost. i lost my bearings there!
And oh! this is so typically May! Such a pretty blog! Those little touches like the lovely little pictures. i haven't figured out how to place an image yet. Hmm...i'll have to try it out soon.
anyway, this is really fun! Reading all our respective blogs!
Posted by: joan on Wednesday, 30 July, 2003 at 13:53 hrsthanks Joan!....you'll manage to suss the scripts out in no time...it takes some twiddling...i am still learning as i go about it... good luck!
Posted by: hrm on Wednesday, 30 July, 2003 at 19:10 hrs*Note: in case you were thinking of leaving a comment and the option isn't here anymore... it is because the comment section of each entry is closed after sometime to prevent malicious comments... if you are looking for the actual entry, type in the keyword(s) in the little box on the main page http://overacuppa.com where it says "fossicking pebbles & seashells" and press *search*... thank you for popping by and happy browsing!