The more the merrier for animals that synchronize their behavior
Social interaction could be the mechanism that allows animals living in groups to synchronize their activities, whether it's huddling for warmth or offering protection from predators.
View ArticleKeeping the body ticking: Scientists discover mechanism that regulates...
Tick tock. Tick tock. A team of scientists from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have discovered a molecular switch that regulates the...
View ArticleTomato domestication decelerated the circadian clock
All organisms, from bacteria to humans, exhibit endogenous rhythms controlled by the circadian clock. These rhythms are important for synchronization with the environment. Scientists at the Max Planck...
View ArticleThe evolution of Dark-fly
On November 11, 1954, Syuiti Mori turned out the lights on a small group of fruit flies. More than sixty years later, the descendents of those flies have adapted to life without light. These flies—a...
View ArticleMagnetoreception molecule found in the eyes of dogs and primates
Cryptochromes are light-sensitive molecules that exist in bacteria, plants and animals. In animals, they are involved in the control of the body's circadian rhythms. In birds, cryptochromes are also...
View ArticleHoneybee circadian rhythms are affected more by social interactions
Circadian rhythms are internal clocks that determine many of an organism's daily rhythms, for example sleep-wake, feeding, urinary output and hormone production. Aligned with the environment by...
View ArticleMathematical models explain east-west asymmetry of jet lag recovery
Travelers frequently report experiencing a significantly slower jet lag recovery after an eastward vs. westward flight. While some are quick to dismiss this complaint as being "all in their head," new...
View ArticleMelatonin, biological clock keep singing fish on time
In the 1980s, people living on houseboats in the San Francisco Bay were puzzled by a droning hum of unknown origin that started abruptly in the late evening and stopped suddenly in the morning.
View ArticleBlast of thin air can reset circadian clocks
We might not think of our circadian clock until we are jetlagged, but scientists continue to puzzle over what drives our biological timepiece. Now, a study published October 20 in Cell Metabolism has...
View ArticleFeeling the rhythm
Many astronauts play instruments, and some have even made music in space. Few have danced in space, though, perhaps because crew members find it difficult to tap their toes when weightless. Or it could...
View ArticleNew light sensing molecule discovered in the fruit fly brain
Six biological pigments called rhodopsins play well-established roles in light-sensing in the fruit fly eye. Three of them also have light-independent roles in temperature sensation. New research shows...
View ArticleHow circadian clocks communicate with each other
Multiple biological clocks control the daily rhythms of physiology and behavior in animals and humans. Whether and how these clocks are connected with each other is still a largely open question. A new...
View ArticleActive 24/7 and doing great
Circadian clocks control the day-night cycle of many living beings. But what do the pacemakers do in animals whose activities do not follow this pattern? Scientists from the University of Würzburg have...
View ArticleMuscles can 'ask' for the energy they need
Muscles require energy to perform all of the movements that we do in a day, and now, for the first time, researchers at the Texas A&M College of Medicine have shown how muscles "request" more...
View ArticleUS body clock geneticists take 2017 Nobel Medicine Prize
US geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young were awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize Monday for shedding light on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most...
View ArticleNobel Chemistry Prize: Major award for molecular matters
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry rewards researchers for major advances in studying the infinitesimal bits of material that are the building blocks of life.
View ArticleNeanderthals didn't give us red hair but they certainly changed the way we sleep
Geneticists have now firmly established that roughly two percent of the DNA of all living non-African people comes from our Neanderthal cousins.
View ArticleThe chemical that tells plants when it's time to sleep
Each of us goes through a daily cycle. We wake up, spend the day eating, working and playing, and then we sleep. Messing with this cycle by not sleeping, doing shift work, travelling to a different...
View ArticleStudying circadian rhythms in plants and their pathogens might lead to...
At dusk, the leaves of the tamarind tree close, waiting for another dawn. Androsthenes, a ship captain serving under Alexander the Great, made the first written account of these leaf movements in the...
View ArticleCircadian regulation in the honey bee brain
Circadian clocks regulate the behaviour of all living things. Scientists from the University of Würzburg have now taken a closer look at the clock's anatomical structures and molecular processes in the...
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