Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Biophys J. 2012 Mar 7;102(5):961-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2012.01.007. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
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 through the impact of a physical rather than a chemical signature of the radical pair: a transient, long-lived electric dipole moment. Based on this premise, our picture can explain 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.
某些候鸟能够感知地球磁场。这个过程的本质尚未被充分理解。在这里，我们提供了一个简单的解释，根据这个解释，鸟类实际上是通过自由基对的物理而不是化学特征的影响来“看到”局部磁场的：一个短暂的、长寿命的电偶极矩。基于这一前提，我们的图像可以解释最近令人惊讶的实验数据，这些数据表明自由基对的寿命很长。此外，朝着这种磁场感应机制有一条明确的进化途径：它是一种可能存在于许多物种中的弱效应的增强。
