Truting the Sun – Science Poetry

What guidance
Not fixed –
shift
fold
A turn of the day,
Mapping in drift
Light
Through the sky skin.
Every hour
Unlock
What’s the body
Once real
still
It moves –
A wild thing
Reading Edge
world
There is no doubt.
In the small
The engine of the soul,
Time is the spine
Wounds under light
Sunshine straight line
Loop through
In the wild bending and
Magnetic mark.
It doesn’t need
name
It knows –
Just turn
And keep
For the invisible
Wire.

The poem is inspired by recent research that found that insects’ brains may use internal clocks and triangular circuits to calculate the position of the sun.

Many insects rely on the sun to help them sail, but using the sun as a compass is not as simple as it seems. Since the daytime sun seems to move in the sky, any creature that uses it to find direction needs to consider the time of day, the time of year, and their location on Earth. This is a complex challenge for a tiny insect – but many species are able to direct themselves with impressive accuracy even during long-term migration or foraging trips.

This study explores how insects manage such feats. This suggests that some brain cells called clock neurons may use conventional cycles to track time, a bit like waves. By combining this sense of time with information from the sun’s compass and other parts of the brain, insects can use simple mathematical rules to figure out where they are and which direction to go. The study tested the idea using simulations of insect motion, finding that even a basic model (with the sun moving at noon time) might be sufficient for accurate navigation. This work sheds light on the significant ways in which animals have space and time, and how biology solves problems that often require complex calculations.