Physics of the Senses: Is Magnetoreception a Sense without a Receptor?

Humans have a wide range of senses that enable them to navigate their environment, including five fundamental ones: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. The brain undergoes a difficult yet intriguing process as the organs connected to each of the latter report on specific experiences to it. The brain then converts these sensations into intelligible information. Bright hues, a loud bang, sharp pain, a familiar taste on the tongue, or a sweet scent that tickles the nose are all stimuli that are combined into one broad image to help us recognize our surroundings. However, certain species have super senses, despite the fact that human nervous systems are very complex.

Bats use sound waves to hunt, while elephants have the strongest noses in the animal kingdom, and cats are widely recognized for their nocturnal vision. Some even believe that birds, along with some mammals, reptiles, and fish, possess magnetoreception, the capacity to perceive the Earth's magnetic field.

The series "Physics of the Senses 101" explores the physical mechanisms underlying each sense, including the purported sixth sense, and explains how they contribute to the "super-capacities" that some species exhibit.

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