The humbling elegance of butterfly navigation

Two scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have discovered how Monarch butterflies navigate over thousands of miles between the US and Mexico during their annual migrations. The butterfly's eyes contain photoreceptors that are tuned to receive polarized UV light from the sun. These receptors are directly linked via neural fibers to a region of the butterfly's brain called the dorsolateral protocerebrum, which contains a circadian clock that controls the butterfly's metabolic cycles. By neurally combining the time of day and the incident angle of UV light from the sun, the Monarch's brain computes a compass heading in real time.

The next time you think you've designed a really "hot," complex embedded system, consider how difficult it still is for human designers to develop something as elegant and complex as the Monarch's migratory navigation system. Also, consider how you'd power such a system on fruit nectar and water.