Cryptochrome, a naturally occurring protein in the human eye, can help humans navigate.
Ever wonder how migrating birds know to fly South every winter? It’s due to a naturally-occurring protein called chryptochrome, which has an attraction to the Earth’s magnetic fields.
Now, a new study shows that we humans have the same protein in our eyes. In the experiment, flies, which naturally produce a variation of the protein, were genetically engineered to produce the form of the protein found in humans and other vertebrae animals, cryptochrome-2. Some were also bred without either form of the protein.
“We developed a system to study the real mechanism of magnetosensing in fruit flies… we can put these proteins from other animals into the fly and ask, ‘do these proteins in their different forms actually function as magnetoreceptors?’,” study author Steve Reppert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School told BBC News.
The researchers found that the flies without cryptochrome were unable to align themselves with magnetic fields, but those who carried the human form of the protein were able to naturally navigate towards the fields.
So what do the findings mean? It seems that, like migratory birds, we carry a sort of internal compass that can help us determine where we are. While it may not be time to give up your GPS, it’s good to know that, if you ever need to use it, you have the power to find your way home.