Clock Zoo:
Much of the biological research is done in a handful of model organisms. Important studies in organisms that can help us better understand the evolutionary relationships on a large scale tend to be hidden far away from the limelight of...
Read on »
Posted on May 13, 2008 8:01 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We have recently covered interesting reproductive adaptations in mammals, birds, insects, flatworms, plants and protists. For the time being (until I lose inspiration) I'll try to leave cephalopod sex to the experts and the pretty flower sex to the chimp...
Read on »
Posted on May 10, 2008 6:57 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It has been almost three years since I promised to write a post detailing the photoperiodic response in mammals. (Birds are more complicated). Now Shelley gives a good example - the snowshoe hare which changes color annually: it is dark...
Posted on March 5, 2008 9:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I had no time to read this in detail and write a really decent overview here, perhaps I will do it later, but for now, here are the links and key excerpts from a pair of exciting new papers in...
Posted on January 7, 2008 8:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Last week I had lunch with a good old friend of mine, Jim Green. He got his degree in Zoology, then a law degree (patent law) and is now coming back for yet another degree in biological and chemical engineering....
Read on »
Posted on August 12, 2007 4:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The origin and early evolution of circadian clocks are far from clear. It is now widely believed that the clocks in cyanobacteria and the clocks in Eukarya evolved independently from each other. It is also possible that some Archaea possess...
Read on »
Posted on August 12, 2007 8:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Much of the biological research is done in a handful of model organisms. Important studies in organisms that can help us better understand the evolutionary relationships on a large scale tend to be hidden far away from the limelight of...
Read on »
Posted on August 11, 2007 9:02 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Writing a chronobiology blog for a year and a half now has been quite a learning experience for me. I did not know how much I did not know (I am aware that most of my readers know even less,...
Read on »
Posted on August 10, 2007 8:57 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fifth in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria, covering more politics than biology (from May 17, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on August 9, 2007 8:55 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fourth in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria (from April 30, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on August 8, 2007 8:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The third installment in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria (from April 19, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on August 7, 2007 8:53 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Second post in a series of five (from April 05, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on August 6, 2007 8:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
First in a series of five posts on clocks in bacteria (from March 08, 2006)......
Read on »
Posted on August 5, 2007 8:50 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The first in a series of posts on circadian clocks in microorganisms (from February 23, 2006)......
Read on »
Posted on August 4, 2007 8:57 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Review of some very cool new papers on Drosophila circadian clocks
Read on »
Posted on May 19, 2007 12:56 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yup, that was going to be the title of this post. I got the paper and was ready to write the post when I noticed that Peter scooped me and posted about the same paper today (yup, there is just...
Posted on April 20, 2007 4:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is Marine Megavertebrate Week right now, so why not take a look at one of the most Mega of the Megaverts - the grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus): Do whales sleep? You may have heard that dolphins do - one...
Read on »
Posted on April 18, 2007 1:06 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A new paper just came out today on PLoS-Biology: Glucocorticoids Play a Key Role in Circadian Cell Cycle Rhythms. The paper is long and complicated, with many control experiments, etc, so I will just give you a very brief summary...
Posted on March 21, 2007 12:24 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Last week I had lunch with a good old friend of mine, Jim Green. He got his degree in Zoology, then a law degree (patent law) and is now coming back for yet another degree in biological and chemical engineering....
Posted on February 13, 2007 11:36 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There are several journals dedicated to biological rhythms or sleep. Of those I regularly check only two or three of the best, so I often miss interesting papers that occur in lower-tier journals. Here is one from December 2006 that...
Posted on February 11, 2007 12:24 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
No other aspect of behavioral biology is as well understood at the molecular level as the mechanism that generates and sustains circadian rhythms. If you are following science in general, or this blog in particular, you are probably familiar with...
Posted on December 5, 2006 2:52 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post is a relatively recent (May 24, 2006) critique of a PLoS paper....
Read on »
Posted on November 13, 2006 10:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Making connections....
Read on »
Posted on November 6, 2006 10:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There is nothing easier than taking a bad paper - or a worse press release - and fisking it with gusto on a blog. If you happen also to know the author and keep him in contempt, the pleasure of...
Read on »
Posted on October 26, 2006 12:00 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
How birds know when and where to migrate
Read on »
Posted on October 23, 2006 11:01 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Randy Nelson is a wonderful person, an engaging speaker and the author of the best textbook on Behavioral Endocrinology. I heard that he is also a great teacher which does not surprise me and he has a talent for attracting...
Read on »
Posted on October 19, 2006 11:50 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Placing a cool physiological/behavioral study into an evolutionary context
Read on »
Posted on October 9, 2006 11:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Considering that circadian clocks were first discovered in plants, and studied almost exclusively in plants for almost a century before people started looking at animals in the early 20th century, it is somewhat surprising that the molecular aspects of the...
Posted on October 7, 2006 1:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms....
Read on »
Posted on October 2, 2006 11:06 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In this post I present some unpublished data that you may find interesting. You should always fight at night.
Read on »
Posted on September 18, 2006 10:52 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fifth in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria, covering more politics than biology.
Read on »
Posted on September 8, 2006 10:51 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fourth in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria.
Read on »
Posted on September 8, 2006 9:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The third installment in the five-part series on clocks in bacteria.
Read on »
Posted on September 7, 2006 9:51 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Second post in a series of five (from April 05, 2006):...
Read on »
Posted on September 6, 2006 9:56 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
First in a series of five posts on clocks in bacteria.
Read on »
Posted on September 5, 2006 9:58 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The first in a series of posts on circadian clocks in microorganisms (from February 23, 2006)......
Read on »
Posted on September 4, 2006 9:54 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I rarely write about biological rhythms outside of circadian range (e.g., circannual, circalunar, circatidal rhythms etc.), but if you liked this post on lunar rhythms in antlions, you will probably also like this little review of lunar rhythms in today's...
Posted on September 1, 2006 10:46 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post places another paper of ours within a broader context of physiology, behavior, ecology and evolution, plus, you can see some previously unpublished data.
Read on »
Posted on August 18, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a summary of my 1999 paper, following in the footsteps of the work I described here two days ago. The work described in that earlier post was done surprisingly quickly - in about a year - so I...
Read on »
Posted on August 17, 2006 11:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post starts with some of my old research and poses a new hypothesis.
Read on »
Posted on August 15, 2006 11:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the assumptions in the study of circadian organization is that, at the level of molecules and cells, all vertebrate (and perhaps all animal) clocks work in roughly the same way. The diversity of circadian properties is understood to...
Read on »
Posted on August 15, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post, from January 25, 2006, describes part of the Doctoral work of my lab-buddy Chris.
Read on »
Posted on August 15, 2006 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the important questions in the study of circadian organization is the way multiple clocks in the body communicate with each other in order to produce unified rhythmic output....
Read on »
Posted on August 15, 2006 8:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Going into more and more detail, here is a February 11, 2005 post about the current knowledge about the circadian organization in my favourite animal - the Japanese quail.
Read on »
Posted on August 14, 2006 11:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Moving from relatively simple mammalian model to more complex systems.
Read on »
Posted on August 14, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post describes the basic elements of the circadian system in mammals.
Read on »
Posted on August 14, 2006 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A nice new study on ecological aspects of circadian rhythms: To a tiny tadpole, life boils down to two basic missions: eat, and avoid being eaten. But there's a trade-off. The more a tadpole eats, the faster it grows big...
Posted on August 10, 2006 12:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Friday Weird Sex Blogging: A cute example of a wonderfully evolved reproductive strategy, and not just a way to couple together my two passions - clocks and sex.
Read on »
Posted on August 5, 2006 12:02 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Origin, Evolution, and Adaptive Function of Biological Clocks
Read on »
Posted on July 17, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This post, originally published on January 16, 2005, was modified from one of my written prelims questions from early 2000....
Read on »
Posted on July 10, 2006 10:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Writing a chronobiology blog for a year and a half now has been quite a learning experience for me. I did not know how much I did not know (I am aware that most of my readers know even less,...
Posted on July 4, 2006 9:59 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is in the bread-mold Neurospora crassa. It is unlikely to be universal. I expect to see the connection in some protists and fungi, perhaps in some animals. I am not so sure about plants, and I am pretty sure...
Posted on June 29, 2006 4:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Do Cnidaria have real circadian rhythms? Survey of daily rhythms in corals, sea anemones and jellyfish.
Read on »
Posted on June 27, 2006 11:59 AM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
The circadian clock in the chestnut tree stops during winter dormancy. Why?
Posted on June 26, 2006 9:59 AM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
