MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'chronobiology'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:50:05 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4968693&cid=t_135922_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2FoNEfDBc2IhU%2F Shelby Harris Interview with sleep psychologist Shelby Harris. Topics include adjusting circadian rhythms, sleep hygiene, dreams, nightmares and sleep paralysis, narcolepsy, and her professional view of the movie Inception. (Source: Channel N) Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4968693 Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:30:56 +0100 4968693 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4233291&cid=t_135922_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2FY-nXh1NSE4Q%2F Alzheimer’s Disease Care and Treatment: A New Paradigm John Zeisel, author of I’m Still Here: A New Philosophy Of Alzheimer’s Care, explains how gardening, sunlight and art therapy benefit people with dementia living in a long-term care facility. (Source: Channel N) Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4233291 Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:30:30 +0100 4233291 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3813032&cid=t_135922_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F08%2F02%2Ftired-on-mondays-sleep-more-on-weekends%2F If you’re feeling especially tired today — and it’s Monday — it may be because you didn’t get your normal recharge of sleep this past weekend. So says a new study published in the journal Sleep by David Dinges and his colleagues. Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing the results of a sleep deprivation study on 159 healthy, middle-aged adults. A group of 142 participants were sleep-deprived by allowing them only four hours of sleep for 5 consecutive nights. But before the sleep deprivation, these subjects were first given two nights of 10-hour sleep periods, to ensure all participants started at similar sleep levels. They were then allowed randomized doses of recovery sleep ranging from zero hours to 10 hours for per night. The other 17 partici... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3813032 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:18:23 +0100 3813032 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3718711&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FSEaxfaREEaA%2Fare_zombies_nocturnal.php Blame 'Night of the Living Dead' for this, but many people mistakenly think that zombies are nocturnal, going around their business of walking around town with stilted gaits, looking for people whose brains they can eat, only at night. You think you are safe during the day? You are dangerously wrong! Zombies are on the prowl at all times of day and night! They are not nocturnal, they are arrhythmic! And insomniac. They never sleep! Remember how one becomes a zombie in the first place? Through death, or Intercision, or, since this is a science blog and we need to explain this scientifically, through the effects of tetrodotoxin. In any case, the process incurs some permanent brain damage. One of the brain centers that is thus permanently damaged is the circadian clock. But importantly,... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3718711 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:00:13 +0100 3718711 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3683744&cid=t_135922_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2FyWE48FyUNWc%2Fchronobiology-and-design-healthy-buildings-for-brains.html Light Beyond Vision: Day and Night in Building Science and Chronobiology How natural and artificial light affects our bodies, circadian systems, sleep and mood, and the role of architecture and design for healthy chronobiology. Related videos: Sleep, Genes and Bipolar Disorders, and Hypothalamus and Chronobiology. There’s also a massive amount of info, much of it practical how-to, with plenty of research and news in the comments of the World of Psychology blog post Light and Dark. (Source: Channel N) Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3683744 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:51:25 +0100 3683744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3625662&cid=t_135922_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FChannelN-PodcastsPoweredByOdiogo%2F%7E3%2FZsPNGmGXhy0%2Fsleep-genes-and-bipolar-disorders.html Clocks & Rhythms with Colleen McClung A leading researcher on bipolar disorders and chronobiology is interviewed about her groundbreaking work with clock genes and circadian rhythms. A SciVee Pubcast, DOI: 10.4016/10858.01. (Source: Channel N) Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3625662 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:30:28 +0100 3625662 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3463868&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2Fd7XzwmfD6BU%2Fevolutionary_medicine_does_rei.php Whenever I read a paper from Karl-Arne Stokkan's lab, and I have read every one of them, no matter how dense the scientese language I always start imagining them running around the cold, dark Arctic, wielding enormous butterfly nets, looking for and catching reindeer (or ptarmigans, whichever animal the paper is about) to do their research. If I was not so averse to cold, I'd think this would be the best career in science ever! It is no surprise that their latest paper - A Circadian Clock Is Not Required in an Arctic Mammal (press release) - was widely covered by the media, both traditional and blogs, See, for example, The Scientist, BBC, Scientific American podcast and Wired Science. Relevant, or just cool? It is hard to find a science story that is more obviously in the "that... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3463868 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:52:01 +0100 3463868 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2470001&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FlpLmpxa94Bs%2Fclocks_sleep_and_non-visual_ph.php 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 more on their blogs. Stimulant Improves Sleep Locked-In Syndrome Opioids and Sleep Disorders Home Testing for Sleep Apnea? Pure Hypomanics: Living Zippedy Doo Dah Lives? SFN Update: Sleep Deprivation Impacts Memory, Reduces Hippocampal Activity Data Faker Turns Himself In Agomelatine: A New Approach For Depression Casual Fridays: Dave FINALLY finishes analyzing the procrastination data Just Give 'em Some Nyquil While You're At It The Long, Long Sleep Scientist to Men: Don't sleep over Two Stories on Sleep Why do I feel like I'm falling when I go to sleep? Power... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2470001 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:48:23 +0100 2470001 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2458544&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FnNC1ktM_IWk%2Fin_memoriam_victor_bruce_1920-.php Victor Bruce, a lecturer emeritus in biology at Princeton who conducted advanced studies for more than 25 years on the built-in cycles governing natural rhythms like the sleep-wake cycle, has died. He was 88. Bruce, who despite a background in engineering became drawn to biological studies, died Friday, May 29, at his home in Princeton after a short struggle with cancer. "He was an A-1 scientist who did some really neat work," said John Bonner, Princeton's George M. Moffett Professor Emeritus of Biology. "He was a wonderful colleague." Bruce joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 1956, drawn by the work of Colin Pittendrigh, a noted professor in the department. It was in Pittendrigh's lab that Bruce began his studies into the circadian rhythms of the one-celled Chlamydomonas, a... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2458544 Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:42:17 +0100 2458544 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2442849&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FWA1aJHM7DEQ%2Fyes_archaea_also_have_circadia.php 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 of "most organisms living on or near the Earth's surface have circadian rhythms". Why? In the earliest days of chronobiology, it made sense to do most of the work on readily available organisms: plants, insects, mammals and birds. During the 20th century, thousands of species of animals, fungi, protists and plants - all living on the planet's surface - were tested for the possession of the circadian clock, and one was always found. Hence the "ubiquitous" statement seen in so many papers. But, as it was later discovered, for som... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2442849 Thu, 28 May 2009 16:41:34 +0100 2442849 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2249433&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FqtYXBDFkMBA%2Fdaylight_saving_time_1.php Yup, it's tonight. If you were around here a few months ago, the day after the Fall Back day, you probably read this post. Disregarding the debate over rhetoric of science, that is probably my best, most detailed explanation for what happens to our bodies on those too strange days of the year - Spring Forward and Fall Back day. Spring Forward is much more dangerous, so be very careful in the mornings next week, especially on Monday. Take it easy, get up slowly, be a little late for work if you can afford it. Life and health are more important than a few minutes of work and being punctual on a day like that. And that post also contains a bunch of links at the bottom to other posts on the topic. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2249433 Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:26:33 +0100 2249433 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2211372&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2FOoE0-DHUdQs%2Fmeetings_id_like_to_go_topart_2.php The 2009 Gordon Conference on Chronobiology is all molecular, and it is tough to get in anyway. It would be nice to go, but I don't see how I can get invited and/or funded. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2211372 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:03:14 +0100 2211372 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1853831&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F412252754%2Fwikipedia_just_like_an_organis.php The October issue of the Journal of Biological Rhythms came in late last week - the only scientific journal I get in hard-copy these days. Along with several other interesting articles, one that immediately drew my attention was Clock Gene Wikis Available: Join the 'Long Tail' by John B. Hogenesch and Andrew I. Su (J Biol Rhythms 2008 23: 456-457.), especially since John Hogenesh and I talked about it in May at the SRBR meeting. Now some of you may be quick to make a connection between this article and its author Andrew Su and A Gene Wiki for Community Annotation of Gene Function, published in PLoS Biology back in July, where one of the authors is also Andrew Su. And you would be right - it's the same person and the two articles are quite related. In the PLoS Biology article, they write:... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1853831 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:47:24 +0100 1853831 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1623008&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F335604594%2Fsleep_and_circadian_group_on_g.php There is now a Sleep and Circadian group on Graduate Junction so if you are a student or postdoc in the field, and enough of you join up, we can see if can get some discussions going.... Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1623008 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:07:24 +0100 1623008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1561309&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F324290601%2Fharvard_summer_course_on_circa.php Came to my e-mail inbox: The Harvard Summer School is pleased to announce the addition of a three-day special seminar for teachers in the sciences. Based on the well-known "Chautauqua Seminars" model, there is no cost to participants other than a $50 registration fee. The course is taught by distinguished Harvard faculty and provides an opportunity for invited scholars to share new knowledge, concepts, and techniques directly with teachers in ways which are immediately beneficial to their teaching. The primary aim of this rejuvenating session is to enable teachers to keep their teaching current with respect to both content and pedagogy. This course will be of interest to graduate students considering teaching, high school teachers, and college professors in the sciences. THE COU... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1561309 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:46:07 +0100 1561309 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1516798&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F310814780%2Flight_and_time.php Two of my SciBlings have recently covered papers that my readers should find interesting: Joseph: Bright Light and Melatonin Treatment Improves Dementia: A study published in JAMA indicates that treatment with bright light alone (1,000 lux), or bright light combined with melatonin, can improve symptoms in patients with dementia. Melatonin alone appeared to have a slight adverse effect. Chris Chatham : Time Perception: In the Absence of "Time Sensation?": In their newly in-press TICS article, Ivry and Schlerf review the state of the art in cognitive modeling of time perception - perhaps the most basic form of perception which has no sensory system dedicated to it. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1516798 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:29:24 +0100 1516798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1464213&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F296103518%2Fthe_amplitude_problem_1.php If you are one of the few of my readers who actually slogged through my Clock Tutorials, especially the difficult series on Entrainment and Phase Response Curves, you got to appreciate the usefulness of the oscillator theory from physics in its application to the study of biological clocks. Use of physics models in the study of biological rhythms, pioneered by Colin Pittendrigh, is an immensely useful tool in the understanding of the process of entrainment to environmental cycles. Yet, as I warned several times, a Clock is a metaphor and, as such, has to be treated with thought and caution. Is the physics model always applicable? Is it sometimes deceptive? How much does it oversimplify the behavior out in the natural environment? Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this p... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1464213 Thu, 22 May 2008 21:58:19 +0100 1464213 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1458864&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F294556598%2Fdevelopment_of_the_human_sleep.php What it really means when we are talking about babies "sleeping through the night" (from September 22, 2005) Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1458864 Tue, 20 May 2008 21:58:39 +0100 1458864 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1451980&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F293537473%2Fsrbr_day_2.php As you know, I am currently in Florida, at the 20th Anniversary meeting of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, that is, my own society. I have not been since 2002, so I am surprised to see how many people remember may face and are happy to see me. I am also surprised to hear how many people in the field read this blog - some more some less regularly - and even use the ClockTutorials and some other Chronobiology posts in teaching their courses on Biological Clocks. I would have know this before if they would just post comments here! What I am not surprised, yet am pleased, is how much people are in support of Open Access and love PLoS. I have already talked to dozens of people about the details of PLoS is and what it does and how it does it and why that is good and they shoul... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1451980 Mon, 19 May 2008 15:34:22 +0100 1451980 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1450402&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F292538393%2Fsrbr_day_1.php I just had nice seafood dinner while watching the sunset over the water with this guy, down in sunny Florida. Readers of this blog have met him before, here and here. I also saw Erik Herzog, who is familiar to all of you from, e.g., here, here, here and here. I heard him give a presentation about the ways to get an NSF grant in the circadian field. I am about to see Chris Steele as well. I attended a Memorial Symposium on Melatonin in honor of Aaron Lerner. And talked to several people about PLoS already - I am REALLY doing my job. I am suprised how many people recognize me and are happy to see me - last time I attended SRBR meeting was six years ago. Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1450402 Sun, 18 May 2008 00:06:50 +0100 1450402 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1440017&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F289396110%2Fdo_sponges_have_circadian_cloc.php 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 press releases and big journals. Here's one example (March 30, 2006): Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1440017 Tue, 13 May 2008 13:01:02 +0100 1440017 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1419696&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F283521762%2Foxytocin_and_childbirth_or_not_1.php When teaching human or animal physiology, it is very easy to come up with examples of ubiqutous negative feedback loops. On the other hand, there are very few physiological processes that can serve as examples of positive feedback. These include opening of the ion channels during the action potential, the blood clotting cascade, emptying of the urinary bladder, copulation, breastfeeding and childbirth. The last two (and perhaps the last three!) involve the hormone oxytocin. The childbirth, at least in humans, is a canonical example and the standard story goes roughly like this: When the baby is ready to go out (and there's no stopping it at this point!), it releases a hormone that triggers the first contraction of the uterus. The contraction of the uterus pushes the baby out a little. Tha... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1419696 Sun, 04 May 2008 21:53:56 +0100 1419696 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1419349&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F283274594%2Fdoes_circadian_clock_regulate_2.php This post from March 27, 2006 starts with some of my old research and poses a new hypothesis. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1419349 Sun, 04 May 2008 12:58:49 +0100 1419349 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1417928&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F282350680%2Fcompared_to_your_pet_iguana_yo_1.php You and I, as well as all of our mammalian brethren, have just a few photopigments, i.e., colored molecules that change shape when exposed to light and subsequently trigger cascades of biochemical reactions leading to changes in electrical properties of sensory neurons, which lead to modulation of neurotransmitter release, which propagates the information from one neuron to the next until it is integrated and interpreted somewhere in the brain - we see the light! More under the fold.... Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1417928 Fri, 02 May 2008 21:55:44 +0100 1417928 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1413603&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F281669216%2Fa_huge_new_circadian_pacemaker_1.php If you really read this blog 'for the articles', you know some of my recurrent themes, e.g., that almost every biological function exhibits cycles and that almost every cell in every organism contains a more-or-less functioning clock. Here is a new paper that combines both of those themes very nicely, but I'll start with a little bit of background first. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1413603 Thu, 01 May 2008 21:24:13 +0100 1413603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1400748&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F277870527%2Fhow_global_warming_disrupts_bi_1.php Since this is another one of the recurring themes on my blog, I decided to republish all of my old posts on the topic together under the fold. Since my move here to the new blog, I have continued to write about this, e.g., in the following posts: Preserving species diversity - long-term thinking Hot boiled wine in the middle of the winter is tasty.... Global Warming disrupts the timing of flowers and pollinators Global Warming Remodelling Ecosystems in Alaska Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1400748 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:56:41 +0100 1400748 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1393910&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F276405176%2Fdiversity_of_insect_circadian_1.php From January 20, 2006, on the need to check the model-derived findings in non-model organisms. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1393910 Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:16:41 +0100 1393910 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1389205&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F274956915%2Fphaseresponse_curve_and_tcycle_1.php 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 decided to do some more for my Masters Thesis. The obvious next thing to do was to expose the quail to T-cycles, i.e., non-24h cycles. This is some arcane circadiana, so please refer to the series of posts on entrainment from yesterday and the two posts on seasonality and photoperiodism posted this morning so you can follow the discussion below: There were three big reasons for me to attempt the T-cycle experiment at that time: Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1389205 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:55:57 +0100 1389205 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1386973&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F274263125%2Fhow_eyes_talk_to_each_other_1.php 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 the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1386973 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:51:59 +0100 1386973 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1385854&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F273724028%2Fquail_how_many_clocks_1.php 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 be a higher-level property of interacting multicelular and multi-organ circadian systems: how the clocks receive environmental information, how the multiple pacemakers communicate and synchronize with each other, how they convey the temporal information to the peripheral clocks in all the other cells in the body, and how perpheral clocks generate observable rhythms in biochemistry, physiology and behavior. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1385854 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:55:15 +0100 1385854 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1383782&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F273143717%2Fah_zugunruhe_1.php How birds know when and where to migrate (from April 03, 2006) Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1383782 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:59:37 +0100 1383782 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1380616&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F272429839%2Fcircadian_rhythms_or_not_in_ar_2.php A January 20, 2006 post placing a cool physiological/behavioral study into an evolutionary context. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1380616 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:52:05 +0100 1380616 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1372022&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F270244994%2Fpersistence_in_perfusion_2.php This post, from January 25, 2006, describes part of the Doctoral work of my lab-buddy Chris. Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post... (Source: A Blog Around The Clock) A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1372022 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:56:47 +0100 1372022 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1363866&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F267752376%2Ffarrell_prize_in_sleep_medicin.php From the Harvard Division of Sleep Medicine: To honor the distinguished career of Professor Richard Kronauer, we will again award the Richard E Kronauer Prize for Excellence in Biomathematical Modeling. This is presented to a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow who has made significant contributions to Modeling Circadian Rhythmicity, Sleep Regulation or Neurobehavioral Function. If you would like to be considered for this prize or would like to nominate someone, please send a recent abstract or paper as well as a current C.V. to ebklerman@hms.harvard.edu before April 27 2008. The award will be presented in Boston in June 2008 at the Farrell Day festivities (http://sleep.med.harvard.edu/what-we-do/farrell-prize-in-sleep-medicine) at which Drs. Kronauer and Borbely will be honored. Th... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1363866 Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:31:44 +0100 1363866 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1356386&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F265903014%2Feverything_you_always_wanted_t_3.php This post is perhaps not my best post, but is, by far, my most popular ever. Sick and tired of politics after the 2004 election I decided to start a science-only blog - Circadiana. After a couple of days of fiddling with the templae, on January 8, 2005, I posted the very first post, this one, at 2:53 AM and went to bed. When I woke up I was astonished as the Sitemeter was going wild! This post was linked by BoingBoing and later that day, by Andrew Sullivan. It has been linked by people ever since, as recently as a couple of days ago, although the post is a year and a half old. Interestingly, it is not linked so much by science or medical bloggers, but much more by people who write about gizmos and gadgets or popular culture on LiveJournal, Xanga and MySpace, as well as people putting the l... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1356386 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:57:05 +0100 1356386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1282318&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F246496865%2Fmelmelmel_its_easy_to_remember.php 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 in summer and white in winter. It is pretty easy to remember - it's all the Mel-something molecules involved. So, here is a very simplified, but essentially correct description of how this happens: Light is detected by the photo-pigment melanopsin in the retinal ganglion cells of the eye. The cells send a signal to the clock (in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN). SCN sends a signal to the pineal gland. During the night, when it is dark, the pineal gland responds to the SCN signal by synthetizing and releasing the hormone melatonin into the bloodstream. T... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1282318 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:33:44 +0100 1282318 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1272626&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F244530293%2Fsee_you_at_the_srbr_meeting.php The 11th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms will be held in Sandestin, FL on May 17th-21st, 2008. And I'll be there. This meeting occurs every two years (on even-numbered years, the International Congress and the Gordon Conference are in odd-numbered years). I attended three or four of these when it was down on Amelia Island, FL. Then I skipped the one in Whistler, Canada, four years ago as I had no money to go, and the one in Sandestin two years ago as I was out of science. But I'll be going back - with a mission: to explain Open Access to my colleagues, to get them to publish with PLoS, to get them to read my blog, to catch up with my field and to do some blog-interviews with the interesting people there. So, if you are chronobiologist and you'll be there,... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1272626 Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:24:59 +0100 1272626 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=977440&cid=t_135922_154_f&fid=36427&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FABlogAroundTheClock%2F%7E3%2F174615834%2Fdaylight_savings_time_worse_th.php I am sure I have ranted about the negative effects of DST here and back on Circadiana, but the latest study - The Human Circadian Clock's Seasonal Adjustment Is Disrupted by Daylight Saving Time (pdf) (press releases: ScienceDaily, EurekAlert) by Thomas Kantermann, Myriam Juda, Martha Merrow and Till Roenneberg shows that the effects are much more long-lasting and serious than previously thought. It is not "just one hour" and "you get used to it in a couple of days". Apparently it takes weeks for the circadian system to adjust, and in some people it never does. In this day and age of around-the-clock life, global communications, telecommuting, etc., the clock-shifting twice a year has outlived its usefulness and should go the way of the dodo. The research also shows why studies of photoper... A Blog Around The Clock blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=977440 Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:45:47 +0100 977440 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=768909&cid=t_135922_122_f&fid=34736&url=http%3A%2F%2Fchanneln.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F07%2Fhypothalamus-and-chronobiology.html title Hypothalamic Regulation Of Sleep And Circadian Rhythmsdescription Neuroanatomy and chronobiology lecture. "The focus of Dr. Saper's laboratory is on the integrated functions maintained by the hypothalamus. These include regulation of wake-sleep cycles, body temperature, and feeding." NLM Classification: WL 312 NLM ID: 101268607 CIT File ID: 12302 CIT Live ID: 3603 Close-captioned.producer NIH Neuroscience Seminar Series; filmed at Bethesda, Md. National Institutes of Healthfeaturing Clifford Saperformat Real Videodate 15/11/04length 01:10:53link http://videocast.nih.gov/Summary.asp?File=12302direct video link http://videocast.nih.gov/launch.asp?12302The description includes, "Rights: This is a work of the United States Government. No copyright exists on this material. It may be ... Channel N blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=768909 Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:07:00 +0100 768909