? A new study has found that the facial beard of mice provides a key clue to locate the wind source, revealing the reason why land mammals can move with the wind.

? Many animals have the magical ability to find food, avoid natural enemies and "find objects" with the wind. But at present, there is no research to explore how land mammals determine the wind direction. New research has found that the secret of this magical ability is largely hidden in the beard of animals. This discovery provides an idea for the bionic design of new air flow measurement equipment based on this induction principle.

? A team composed of Mitra Hartmann, a professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering at McCormick School of Engineering, Northwest University, and her four doctoral students reported in August 20 16 that rats can use their beards to help locate the wind source.

Yan Yu and Matthew Glave are the first authors of the paper. They designed the following experiment: five fans are arranged in a semicircle at equal intervals along the edge of the round table, and there is a hole for mice to pass through on the table in front of each fan, and a tunnel is connected below it. Each experiment randomly selects a fan to turn on and let the wind blow to an "open door" on the other side of the table. They started by "opening the door" and released one mouse at a time. If the mouse can get close to the turned-on fan in the direction of the wind, it will be rewarded in the tunnel after getting into the hole. The camera placed on the desktop records the performance of the mouse.

? A variety of sources explain why rats can still show a higher probability than random selection after cutting off their beards. The decrease of the probability after cutting off the beard shows that in the experiment, although mice have many clues to use, they still choose to use the beard.