Abstract
Imagine being set adrift in a canoe in the middle of an ocean. Which way would you paddle? Most humans would be as lost as lost can be, but creatures such as pigeons, turtles and whales have no difficulty navigating in such circumstances. How they do so remains one of the biggest mysteries in the behavioural sciences, at the centre of which is the question of how organisms might sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it for navigation and homing (a topic with a chequered history — see box, overleaf). The mystery, however, is gradually being solved, and the latest instalment in the story comes in Walker and colleagues' study of rainbow trout (page 371 of this issue).
All known sensory systems have specialized receptor cells designed to respond to the external stimulus, and these are always coupled to neurons to bring this information to the brain. In modern times the main objection to claims that magnetoreception is genuine was biophysical — that there was no evidence of appropriate receptors.