Biological Clocks: Resetting the Clock

Those birds outside your window, greeting the day with a melodious chorus, are doing just what nature intended. The sun is rising, so it’s time to sing. The birds’ biological clock set the time for this performance, and you couldn’t change that clock if you tried. Or could you? I’m Jim Metzner, and this is Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

Biological clocks are sounding the drumbeat. They set the rhythms for the activities of virtually all life on earth.

“They encode a program by which organisms, from little blue green algae to humans, can synchronize their biological processes to the outside world and also coordinate internal biological processes within each organism.”

Vince Cassone is a professor of biology at Texas A & M University. He says biological clocks are set primarily by sunlight. We humans can try to ignore this internal timekeeper, but we pay a price.

“We have a biological clock that makes it more or less likely that we will sleep in the night and not during the day.Anybody who’s ever studied for an exam in high school knows that, if you pull an all-nighter, the next day you’re going to be dead tired. ”

But Cassone says that, if you work at it, over time, you can reset your biological clock.

“Under many circumstances, we can learn to wake up at the right time of day without any light whatsoever, just using our alarm clock by our bed stand.

Scientists have also found they can reset the biological clock of other animals.

“You can actually train a rat, for example, to eat in the middle of the day, which is completely unnatural for that animal.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science. With additional support provided by the National Science Foundation.

Biological Clocks: Resetting the Clock

An animal's biological clock can sometimes be reset. For example, rats have been trained to eat at unorthodox times of day.
Air Date:04/05/2000
Scientist:
Transcript:

Those birds outside your window, greeting the day with a melodious chorus, are doing just what nature intended. The sun is rising, so it's time to sing. The birds' biological clock set the time for this performance, and you couldn't change that clock if you tried. Or could you? I'm Jim Metzner, and this is Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.

Biological clocks are sounding the drumbeat. They set the rhythms for the activities of virtually all life on earth.

"They encode a program by which organisms, from little blue green algae to humans, can synchronize their biological processes to the outside world and also coordinate internal biological processes within each organism."

Vince Cassone is a professor of biology at Texas A & M University. He says biological clocks are set primarily by sunlight. We humans can try to ignore this internal timekeeper, but we pay a price.

"We have a biological clock that makes it more or less likely that we will sleep in the night and not during the day.Anybody who's ever studied for an exam in high school knows that, if you pull an all-nighter, the next day you're going to be dead tired. "

But Cassone says that, if you work at it, over time, you can reset your biological clock.

"Under many circumstances, we can learn to wake up at the right time of day without any light whatsoever, just using our alarm clock by our bed stand.

Scientists have also found they can reset the biological clock of other animals.

"You can actually train a rat, for example, to eat in the middle of the day, which is completely unnatural for that animal."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science. With additional support provided by the National Science Foundation.