The research identified a mechanism that our internal clocks use to respond to light. In mice, it was found that the ones lacking CK1epsilon, a component of the internal clock, were able to adjust to a different light-dark environment much quicker. This work is important because it is becoming increasingly clear that disruption of our bodies' internal clocks has real negative effects, so this research can be used to negate those negative effects.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140320121904.htm
NOS: Science is based on evidence - The mice provided evidence for an experiment.
Science is collaborative - A research team from the University of Manchester worked on this.
Sebastian Deibel
This article is very interesting. I have wondered how the internal clock works. Internal clocks are very important to most animals, especially humans. A follow-up article with diagrams would be very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI am really surprised to find out there is actually an enzyme in our body that controls our internal clocks. I always believed that people have internal clocks because of repetition sleeping patterns and etc. I would love to research this more and find more information about it.
ReplyDeleteI have always found internal clocks interesting concepts, because time is a thing made up by humans to further their understanding of how the world works, yet there are patterns every where.
ReplyDeleteI knew that after 16 hours of not eating, the next time you ate our biological clock would reset, which is how animals adapt to the cycle of new prey, and how students can reset their sleep schedule. The fact that an enzyme controls the biological clock never occurred to me but it makes sense seeing as maybe the enzyme is used at specific times during the day which would then let the body know what time it is. A cool phenomenon is how some people can train themselves to wake up at a pretty close to dead accurate time without a watch or alarm. All of the things like this shows how amazing the human body is and how much potential we have.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading about this, I thought it was so interesting and wanted to find out more about our internal clocks. I wondered how growing old affects our sleeping schedule. I've heard that sleeping through the night becomes harder as humans age, and I'm curious how age and internal clocks relate. I read an article that gave me a lot of information on it. As children pass into adolescence, for example, the stages of sleep and the sleep cycle barely change, but in reality, sleep timing just changes. As growth and development occur, changes in the internal clock result in a preference for delayed sleep times (falling asleep and waking up at later times). When a teenager's internal clock prefers this delayed sleep, it causes problems due to their homework loads and busy school schedules. In addition, when students try to catch up on sleep by over-sleeping on weekends, it actually just shifts their internal clocks further out of their weekly schedule.
ReplyDeleteI also found that when people age, the window in which the internal clock allows humans to sleep gets narrower. This causes older people to wake up and fall asleep earlier. Over all, internal clocks are affected greatly by age and other environmental factors.
Read more at: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/science/variations/changes-in-sleep-with-age
The thing that intrigues me about an internal clock is how it is set. You can't really "set" a clock that is literally a part of an animal, yet somehow almost every animal has some sort of regulatory system that mandates when they sleep, wake, eat, drink, etc. What triggers this regularity? One would think that it is adopted from it's parents, training them when to sleep and when to eat, but if that is the case, why are there regulatory disorders like insomnia and narcolepsy? Some more research into these topics would be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow, quite the discovery. One practical application I can easily see this being used in is travel. While that might sound odd and abstract for such a discovery, it would be very useful. This is how: Suppose you were an international business person, flying in between the US and China every two weeks for business conferences and meetings. As you arrive in china, your body clock is almsot exactly opposite what the daylight is in China. It would be almost a week before your body naturally adjusted to the new schedule. Then, as soon as you started adjusting, BANG! You would be right back in the US with a body clock 14 hours off what the actual zone is. If this CK1epsilon enzyme could be manufactured into a shot or drug, and have consuming the drug shorten that adjustment time in half, it would change your life. Very interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very neat application of a discovery like this and it would be very cool to see if this happens someday. Personally I don't quite see how the enzyme CK1epsilon works to adjust the internal clock or how this could be sped up, however this leaves the door open for new discoveries and applications to be made on internal clocks. I have heard things about what human bodys respond to, but this is the first time that there is a reasoning put with it that makes sense. Hopefully this discovery will be able to benefit mankind in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the fact that other animals would also have an internal clock, but that makes a lot of sense because they have to wake up and be prepared for their day. But the fact that an enzyme is what controls our internal clock and that it can wake us up and almost know the time of day by how we are feeling is really quite amazing, and would this CK1epsilon enzyme be able to help student struggling with homework late at night or adults who can't sleep anymore because of how their clock got messed up when they were younger?
ReplyDeleteThe internal clock has always been something that's fascinated me, and light is an interesting variable to test that on. Something else that I think is very interesting is the use of electronics and their effect on your digital clock. As someone whose family members have insomnia, my family has been trying to stop using as many electronics late at night as possible. Something else that I thought was very cool was this study found in Current Biology that said how not using any electronics for a week and instead going camping would reset a person's internal clock. Absolutely fascinating!
ReplyDeleteSource to article:http://www.outsideonline.com/news-from-the-field/The-Camping-Cure.html
This reminds me of an article I read a while back about how electronics, increasing amounts of homework, and longer after school activities have started to have a huge impact on teen's internal clocks. It talked about how teens stay up way later these days than teens did 10 years ago, due to these factors and in turn their internal clocks have begun to adapt to this change. The negative affect of this though was that since their internal clock shifted to comply with going to sleep later, this means that the teen's internal clock tells them to sleep later in the morning. This is a problem since teens are expect to be at school at about 8:00 every morning, regardless of what their internal clock says. Another study also stated that due to this internal clock shift, most teens are not fully functional (mainly academically) until around 10:00 in the morning.
ReplyDeleteI never thought that other living beings have the same internal clock that us humans have. Although, it would make sense. Maybe this can help with research when it comes to animals hibernating.
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