I haven’t done a fun quantum physics post in a while. And yes, I am aware that I used the word  ‘fun’ in the same sentence as ‘quantum physics’, but what can I say…

That’s just how I roll.

Scientists have long speculated that birds navigate the globe using magnetism; however, a new study suggests that quantum entanglement indeed enables birds to “see” the Earth’s magnetic field as if it were a pattern of colors.

Quantum entanglement describes a phenomenon that links a pair of electrons so that either one of them “knows” what the other is doing, regardless of their distance apart. [Link: past Anguished Repose post] According to a paper published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria have designed experiments testing the theory that birds use a molecule called cryptochrome, located in their eyes, to sense magnetic fields.

Basically, this is quantum weirdness being APPLIED  naturally in nature.

O-M-G!

I cannot stress to you enough how amazingly AWESOME this is to me.

Prior to this experiment, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, singled out cryptochrome as a candidate for the molecule that determines how birds sense magnetic fields, as it was known that cryptochrome electrons typically come in entangled pairs. Movement between the pairs occurs when magnetic fields cause the molecules’ electrons to wobble and when sunlight knocks one of the electrons aside. The theory posits that a chemical reaction in response to the wayward electron’s altered spin lets birds see magnetic fields in color.

I mean come on, tell me…Why Is This Not Awesome?!