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KOMPAS.com – Decades before we knew that birds could see Earth’s magnetic field, Albert Einstein has predicted the possibility of the superhuman senses in animals.
Einstein’s previous letter was long lost.
That is the answer to a question by a scientist named Glyn Davys in 1949.
Judging from Einstein’s answer, Davys’ question likely has to do with the senses of animals and the physical world.
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“It is conceivable that investigating the behavior of migratory birds and carrier pigeons could one day lead to an understanding of yet unknown physical processes,” Einstein wrote in his reply to Davys.
More than 70 years later, we now know that Einstein’s predictions were proven.
Researchers today have proven that birds can sense Earth’s magnetic field using special photoreceptors in their eyes that are sensitive to the subtle shifts of Earth’s magnetic field.
This capability is what helps fugitives migrate thousands of kilometers without getting lost.
Other animals, such as turtles, dogs and bees, also exhibit an extraordinary ability to sense Earth’s magnetic field, even if not through the eye.
“Amazingly, Einstein was able to predict this possibility, decades before empirical evidence revealed that some animals could actually see Earth’s magnetic field and use that information for navigation,” wrote the researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where surat one donated.
Reported Science Alert, Thursday (13/5/2021), Einstein has some pointers to guide his thinking.
At the time that the letter was written, the biological and physical sciences were beginning to converge, like never before.
In addition, Davys is a researcher in the field, which may be the reason why he is attracted to the strange senses of animals such as those exhibited by bees.
The same thing existed in Einsten. It seems that the famous physicist was fascinated by biology as an invisible window to physical forces.
His reply, which wasn’t discovered until Davys ‘death in 2011, was short, but confirmed Einstein was also fascinated by the bees’ behavior.
In a written note, Einstein admits that he was very familiar with Karl von Frisch, who recently learned of bee navigation using the polarization pattern of light.
Einstein is known to have attended one of von Frisch’s lectures at Princeton University six months before the letter was sent.
He even had a private meeting with the researcher, and this interaction definitely left an impression.
While Davys seems most interested in how this new biological knowledge can inform future technology, Einstein thinks we need more biological research.
“I don’t see the possibility of using these results in an investigation of the foundations of physics,” he replied to Davys.
“This can only happen if new types of sensory perceptions, namely their stimulation, will be revealed through the behavior of bees.”
Since that letter was sent, we’ve learned a lot about the behavior of bees and how these curious insects view the world.
As Einstein predicted, that knowledge already helps us improve technology, like the camera on smartphone we.
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Despite decades of research, many mysteries remain.
The exact mechanisms by which animals sense light or sense Earth’s magnetic field may not be the same for every species.
Bees, for example, seem to sense magnetic fields in their stomachs, while birds and dogs seem to do so primarily through special photoreceptors in their eyes called cryptochromes.
Even human cells make cryptochromes, and recent research has suggested they respond dynamically to changing magnetic fields.
This is ironic, because that’s what you would expect from a unique quantum reaction. In order for the photoreceptors to sense a magnetic field, it needed electrons in the cell to become entangled, and Einstein at the time had rejected this idea, calling it scary action from a distance.
Obviously, Einstein wasn’t always right, but even when it came to areas of science outside of his expertise, the man had brilliant minds.
This study is published in Journal of Comparative Physiology A.
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