[Cyborg] magnetic sense in birds

[Eric Boyd]

Wow, that's an awesome article you attached.  I especially love the conclusion:

<<
People unaware of these intriguing findings often ask me, “What does ultraviolet vision do for birds?” The question seems to imply that sensitivity to UV must be a peculiarity or even a feature that self-respecting birds should be able to live happily without. We are so locked into the world of our own senses that, although we readily understand and fear a loss of vision, we cannot conjure a picture of a visual world beyond our own. It is humbling to realize that evolutionary perfection is a will-o’-the-wisp and that the world is not quite what we imagine it to be when we measure it through a lens of human self-importance.
>>

I am also fascinated by the idea that our third cone cell is merely a mutated clone of the second cone cell that birds have, you can see this in the spacing of the cones:

Birds:  370  445  508  565
Humans:     424    530 560

Clearly the vision of birds is not only better for being tetra-chromatic, but also better because "red" and "green" are spaced further apart!

I hope someone is researching gene therapy to give humans the vision of birds, cause damn, sign me up!

Eric




On 7/10/10 8:32 PM, kristinneidlinger wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     here is more on the bird eye...
> 
>     ps. i am currently working on a UV fur.
>     does anyone know about UV?
>     do you have any good paint or reflective surface suggestions?
>     i am experimenting with this glow powder and it is not very strong.
> 
>     thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 4:05 PM, Eric Boyd <mrericboyd at yahoo.com
>     <mailto:mrericboyd at yahoo.com>> wrote:
> 
>           Some Birds Can See Magnetic Fields
>         http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/07/09/137230/Some-Birds-Can-See-Magnetic-Fields?art_pos=3
> 
>         Eric
>         _______________________________________________
>         Cyborg mailing list
>         Cyborg at lists.noisebridge.net <mailto:Cyborg at lists.noisebridge.net>
>         https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/cyborg
> 
> 
> 
> 
>     -- 
>     . . .  .  *
> 
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> -- 
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