Group items tagged

Life on Earth is intimately connected to the natural cycles of light and dark that make up a 24-hour day. For plants, animals, and even bacteria, these circadian rhythms control many biological functions. Humans can overrule their body clocks, but at a price: People whose circadian rhythms are regularly disrupted-by frequent jet lag or shift work, for example-are more vulnerable to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. There are various theories to explain these associations, and researchers now have a new player to consider: the bacteria that live in the digestive tract. According to a study in mice and a small group of human volunteers, the internal clocks of these gut microbes sync up with the clocks of their hosts. When our circadian rhythms get out of whack, so do those of our bacteria.

In essence, the young people's bodies seemed to be somehow remembering and responding to what that body had just been doing, whether sitting or moving, and then calculating a new, appropriate response - moving or sitting. In doing so, the researchers felt, the body created a healthy, dynamic circadian pattern.

our circadian rhythm can be interrupted from the light emitted from your phone, but how? What is it doing to your brain? What Sleep Deprivation Does To Your Body - https://youtu.be/lfmy0d9oWt8

Transgenic organisms, which contain DNA that is inserted experimentally, are used to study many biological processes. In this lab, you will create a transgenic fly to study circadian rhythms.

hose who would much rather prefer to burn the midnight oil than get up early in the morning can find solace in a new research that suggests they might be genetically predisposed to being nocturnal. It is your genes that allow you to be more productive at night-time instead of the day. Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK have identified about 80 genes that are closely linked to a preference for either morningness or eveningness. Though these genes were identified in fruit flies and appear unrelated to your own body clock, most of these buggers are found in us mammals as well.

The activity of some of our genes varies with the seasons throughout the year. The discovery comes from an analysis of blood samples from more than 16,000 people in both hemispheres. The most striking pattern was that 147 genes involved in the immune system made it more reactive or "pro-inflammatory" during winter or rainy seasons, probably to battle the onslaught of cold and flu viruses

Exposing mice to long periods of light each day led them to put on fat, likely because their energy-burning brown fat wasn't in good shape.  Mice exposed to long periods of light didn't eat more or exercise less than mice that kept to a 12-hour day, but their brown fat activity dropped, researchers reported in PNAS this week (May 11).

Virtual lab activities