Al-Khalili examines the European Robin , which navigates during migration using a biological compass. Research suggests these birds can "see" Earth's magnetic field through quantum entanglement in their eyes, a phenomenon so strange that even Einstein was skeptical.
Plants and bacteria are shown to capture energy from sunlight with nearly 100% efficiency. They achieve this by exploiting superposition , where energy packets (excitons) travel multiple paths simultaneously to find the most efficient route to the reaction center.
The episode focuses on several biological phenomena that classical physics struggles to explain, suggesting they rely on quantum effects: