Stoneham, AM;
Gauger, EM;
Porfyrakis, K;
Benjamin, SC;
Lovett, BW;
(2012)
A New Type of Radical-Pair-Based Model for Magnetoreception.
Biophysical Journal
, 102
(5)
961 - 968.
10.1016/j.bpj.2012.01.007.
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Abstract
Certain migratory birds can sense the earth's magnetic field. The nature of this process is not yet properly understood. Here we offer a simple explanation according to which birds literally `see' the local magnetic field: Our model relates the well-established radical pair hypothesis to the phenomenon of Haidinger's brush, a capacity to see the polarisation of light. This new picture explains recent surprising experimental data indicating long lifetimes for the radical pair. Moreover there is a clear evolutionary path toward this field sensing mechanism: it is an enhancement of a weak effect that may be present in many species.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | A New Type of Radical-Pair-Based Model for Magnetoreception |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.bpj.2012.01.007 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2012.01.007 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 8 pages, 5 figures, version of final published paper |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/73627 |
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