Quantum biology€2 Million for Research on Migratory Bird Navigation

12 November 2025, by Claudia Sewig

Photo: Adobe Stock

White storks, who spend their summers here in Germany, among other places, are migratory birds. Many fly during the winter months to Africa, covering an average distance of 150 to 300 kilometers per day. Other spend the winter in southern Europe, such as Portugal or Spain.

An important, still unanswered question in quantum biology is how biomagnetic perception, which migratory animals use for navigation, works. A research team headed by Prof. Dr. Michael Thorwart at the University of Hamburg believes that the retinal molecule in the eyes of migratory birds and insects plays a pivotal role in the process. The Volkswagen Foundation has now provided €2 million to the scientists to see if their hypothesis is correct.

Do migratory birds look to the North Star? We know that migrating animals orient themselves using optical conditions, including landmarks such as rivers and mountain chains. And yet how to explain that they can still find their way in total darkness or in cloudy skies? Perceiving Earth’s magnetic field is one possible solution. Prof. Dr. Michael Thorwart and 4 other researchers from the European XFEL Schenefeld, the University of Haifa, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and TU Dortmund would like to investigate a new quantum biology mechanism that could explain how birds and insects use Earth’s magnetic field for navigation purposes.

“Concretely, we are concentrating on the so-called retinal molecule,” said Thorwart, research group leader at the I. Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Hamburg. The protein is located in the retina, the light-sensitive layer that converts light into neural impulses that then go to the brain. All living creatures, Thorwart explained, have the retinal molecule, and there are 4 variants of this protein: “We have 3 of the 4 variants in our eyes. Because we are missing the fourth, human beings cannot see in the ultraviolet spectrum. The fourth variant of the protein appears in migratory organisms, such as migratory birds or monarch butterflies. No non-migratory creatures has this variant.” This is why, he continued, it seems plausible that the fourth variant also plays a role in the perception of the Earth’s magnetic field when subject to UV light. “Special electronic conditions in this retinal variant could, in principle, dock onto Earth’s weak magnetic field and convert, via the so-called quantum mechanical geometrical phase, magnetic information into chemical information,” said Thorwart.

“A bird would see a bright dot in the north”

One challenge facing the research team: the retinal cells are rod cells, which, Thorwald explained, determine a spatial axis. Thorwald: “The proteins that we want to research are arranged in a perpendicular fashion, meaning oriented to the axis. However, when the protein is created synthetically for research purposes and then added to a solution, it is no longer oriented. So we have to create oriented samples that we can then use to make measurements.”

This would mean the team is looking at the start of the chain of perception, purely at molecular level, without working with living animals. What would we find at the end of this change according to your theory, meaning, how would migrating organisms perceive the magnetic field? “A bird would see a bright dot in the north, like a fixed star,” said Thorwart. “The magnetic field lines change the protein’s state so that, in this direction, there is a maximum chemical reaction. The retinal cells that face this direction often produce the signal ‘bright.’ This would be like photons from a light source hitting our eyes. Only in this case, the magnet field direction triggers the impulse.”

The funding for Quantum Geometric Phase for Animal Magnetic Perception will begin on 1 April 2026 and continue for 5 years. Prof. Dr. Michael Thorwart is the spokesperson for the 5-member project; €432,300 is earmarked for the research in Hamburg. The Volkswagen Foundation’s funding program NEXT—Quantum Biology contributes to efforts to prove the existence of quantum effects in biological systems, thereby fostering acceptance for the field. The funds go to interdisciplinary project teams that take on the challenge of transcending the boundaries of previous methods. See the Volkswagen Foundation pages for more information.