More than just a pretty bunch of feathers...
Natural 'Magnetometer' in Upper Beak of Birds?
(Feb. 26, 2010) - Iron containing short nerve branches in the upper beak of birds may serve as a magnetometer to measure the vector of the Earth magnetic field (intensity and inclination) and not only as a magnetic compass, which shows the direction of the magnetic field lines. Several years ago, the Frankfurt neurobiologists Dr. Gerta Fleissner and her husband Prof. Dr. Günther Fleissner discovered these structures in homing pigeons and have, in close cooperation with the experimental physicist Dr. Gerald Falkenberg (DESY Hamburg), characterized the essential iron oxides. ( Read full ScienceDaily article here )
(Feb. 26, 2010) - Iron containing short nerve branches in the upper beak of birds may serve as a magnetometer to measure the vector of the Earth magnetic field (intensity and inclination) and not only as a magnetic compass, which shows the direction of the magnetic field lines. Several years ago, the Frankfurt neurobiologists Dr. Gerta Fleissner and her husband Prof. Dr. Günther Fleissner discovered these structures in homing pigeons and have, in close cooperation with the experimental physicist Dr. Gerald Falkenberg (DESY Hamburg), characterized the essential iron oxides. ( Read full ScienceDaily article here )