My scientific specialty is chronobiology (circadian rhythms and photoperiodism), with additional interests in comparative physiology, animal behavior and evolution. I am not an MD so I cannot diagnose and treat your sleep problems. As well as writing this blog, I am also the Online Discussion Expert for PLoS. This is a personal blog and opinions within it in no way reflect the policies of PLoS. You can contact me at: Coturnix@gmail.com
I am not the only one on ScienceBlogs.com to write about circadian rhythms, sleep and (non-visual) photoreception. Over the years, my SciBlings have written about these and related topics as well. Here is a sampler - go and dig for...
If you ever glanced at the circadian literature, you have probably encountered the statement that "circadian rhythms are ubiquitous in living systems". In all of my formal and informal writing I qualified that statement somewhat, stating something along the lines...
Most people are aware that social insects, like honeybees, have three "sexes": queens, drones and workers. Drones are males. Their only job is to fly out and mate with the queen after which they drop dead. Female larvae fed 'royal...
Two interesting new papers in PLoS Biology today: A Role for the PERIOD:PERIOD Homodimer in the Drosophila Circadian Clock: The current models of circadian clocks in flies and mammals involve the formation of complexes between clock proteins in the cytoplasm....
Circadian Clock: Scientists Model 3D Structures Of Proteins That Control Human Clock: Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute say they have taken a leap forward in their quest to understand the proteins that control the human circadian clock -- the...
Nice four articles: The Gears of the Sleep Clock By Allan Pack: When people have trouble sleeping--such as, in extreme cases, shift workers--those problems are not always rooted in disturbances in circadian rhythm, argues the University of Pennsylvania's ALLAN PACK....
Les Lang at the UNC Medical Center News Office now writes a blog - Hard Science. One recent post immediately caught my eye - Clocking Cancer: You might say that Dr. Aziz Sancar is trying to clock cancer. In a...
Chemotherapy Most Effective At Time Of Day When Particular Enzyme At Lowest Level: For years, research has hinted that the time of day that cancer patients receive chemotherapy can impact their chances of survival. But the lack of a clear...
Two very interesting papers this week: The Circadian Clock in Arabidopsis Roots Is a Simplified Slave Version of the Clock in Shoots: The circadian oscillator in eukaryotes consists of several interlocking feedback loops through which the expression of clock genes...
This EurekAlert title got my attention this morning: Immunity stronger at night than during day: The immune system's battle against invading bacteria reaches its peak activity at night and is lowest during the day. Experiments with the laboratory model organism,...