Animals Use “Chemical Compasses,” Study Says

The idea that some animals navigate by "seeing" Earth's magnetic field has been shown to be feasible in laboratory tests, a new study says.

First proposed about 30 years ago, the theory suggests that sunlight absorbed by molecules in the eyes of animals such as birds and bats triggers a chemical reaction.

This reaction makes the molecules sensitive to the local magnetic field, according to study co-author Peter Hore, a chemist at the University of Oxford in England.

But Earth's magnetic field is so weak that scientists were skeptical that it could have a detectable effect on the molecules.

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