How the Body’s Trillions of Clocks Keep Time

quantamagazine.org

120 points·retupmoc01··7 comments

Wow! They initially couldn't reproduce the study because the researcher and the postdoc were doing the experiment at different times in the day.

"It’s now known that every day, this transcription factor’s levels start at almost nothing, making it impossible to detect in the morning, and then rise 300-fold, making it easy for the postdoc to find in the middle of the day."

Now that's a tough bug

Now think about how many studies have only ever been done at a single time point and wonder how much we are missing.

Huh. I wonder if mutations in these genes are responsible for DSPD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder and other "night owl" vs "morning lark" phenotypes.

The Genetic Basis of Sleep and Sleep Disorders is a collection of papers on the subject, which has a chapter specifically on DSPD. Short story is, there are definitely genetic mutations which influence DSPD. In fact, DSPD seems to be influenced by a larger number of genes than it's cousin disorder, Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder.

I have DSPD, so I've been going to my local university library to study from this book.

Working in the that lab right now. We can now follow the oscillations of these proteins inside the mouse without kills. Wawesome.

How does the Human Body know when it's time for puberty ?

Some people say the hypothalamus secretes a chemical , but how does it figure it out ?

I guess you just grow up to a point, then some part does the foobar when its size reaches a critical point and baz zip nip.

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