Birds might actually be using quantum mechanics to find their way through the skies

Birds might actually be using quantum mechanics to find their way through the skies

Finally a story about birds that doesn't involve them falling out of the sky. We know that robins, like many other animals, uses the Earth's magnetic field to navigate, but we don't know how. The answer could be quantum mechanics.

Although birds are probably the most famous magnetic navigators, the technique of sensing subtle variations in our planet's magnetic field is also used by creatures like bacteria and mole rats. But just how any of these critters manage to sense the Earth's magnetic field has long been a mystery. The leading hypothesis suggests that the field could affect small iron molecules in a bird's eyes, but new research suggests the real mechanisms might be much, much weirder.

The new model says that quantum entanglement is the key. Entanglement is when the quantum status of two particles becomes intertwined so that knowing the properties of one particle means you instantly know the properties of the other, no matter how far apart the two particles might be. (That's the short version, at any rate - here's a more detailed explanation.)
[link to io9.com]