Colloquium Speaker, Klaus Schulten (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Today, October 28, 2014 at 4:00PM

[Patterson, Robin L.]

Please take note of Colloquium taking place today, Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 4:00 PM in The Robert Smith Seminar Room. There will be a reception in the Atrium at 3:45PM. Details concerning the talk are as follows:

Speaker:              Klaus Schulten (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Date:                     Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Time:                     4:00 PM
Place:                    1080 Physics Research Building, The Robert Smith Seminar Room
Title:                     Quantum Biology of Bird Navigation


Abstract:   The manifold sensory perceptions of life forms are an amazing achievement of biological evolution.  Every type of perception is based ultimately on a physical measurement in a respective sensory organ, for example, spectral composition and intensity of sun light transmitted to the retina of the eye, or frequency and intensity of sound reaching the inner ear.  Exploration of sensory perception, over centuries, has been a prime example for interdisciplinary research at the intersection of biology and physics, achieved by scientific heroes like Galileo, Newton, von Helmholtz, or da Vinci.  We often think of the five human senses as familiar and natural, whereas senses that some animals do not share with mankind appear mysterious.  One such sense is the magneto reception of migratory birds that serves the purpose of orientation during long flight routes, and is critical for survival in case of difficult weather conditions on the open sea.  The relevant measurements involve in this case, as behavioral biology has shown, the horizontal and vertical axial directions of the geomagnetic field, but surprisingly not the vectorial directions.  Astonishingly, the sensitivity is maximal at the weak Earth's field strength, diminishing rapidly when field strength increases.  A puzzle had been for a long time the location of the magnetic sense in animals.   An even greater puzzle is that the interactions between biomolecular systems and geomagnetic field is much smaller than thermal noise such that a molecular-based magnetic sense should be impossible.  The lecture tells the exciting story of the localization of the animal magnetic sense and the unique measurement principle that is actually related to a modern field of physics, quantum computing.   Even in the 21st century there are exciting discoveries being made in the area of sensory perception!

The website for the colloquium is https://physics.osu.edu/physics-colloquium-schedule.



Robin
[The Ohio State University]
Robin Patterson
Colloquium and Seminar Coordinator
Department of Physics
1040K Physics Research Building, 191 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-8523 Office     (614) 292-7557 Fax
patterson.716 at osu.edu<mailto:patterson.716 at osu.edu> osu.edu<http://osu.edu/>



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