The Living Clock The Orchestrator of Biological Rhythms

by Palmer, John D.

• ISBN13: 9780195143409
• ISBN10: 019514340X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book is an introduction to a basic property of life, one mostly unknown to science and the public until the latter half of the last century: Humans, plants, and animals have within their bodies a kind of clock that synchronizes much of what they do throughout their lives to the time ofday and the seasons, and in the case of the sea-dwelling organisms, the tides. This timepiece performs its service autonomously - it rules silently within us without us giving a thought to it.Three chapters are devoted to the human clock: its disruptive action in transmeridional travel and shift work, its oversight in most every aspect of our physiology, and how doctors being aware of its action can save lives. Other major subjects describe the role in piloting birds in homing andmigration, guiding the seasonal reproduction of plants and animals, and its influence on shore dwellers. The book closes with a description of the clockworks' escapement.

Author Biography

John D. Palmer is Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and spends most summers at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. One of the world's leading authorities on living clocks, he has worked in the field for forty years.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction to Rhythms and Clocks	1	(10)
Human Rhythms: Basic Processes	11	(26)
Rhythmic Pharmacology	37	(8)
Jet Lag can be a Drag	45	(24)
Daily Rhythm in Single-Cell Organisms	69	(8)
Rhythms in Shore Dwellers	77	(16)
Some Animal Rhythms	93	(18)
A Few Plant Clocks	111	(12)
Denouement: The Living Clock	123	(22)
Notes	145	(4)
Suggested Readings	149	(8)
Figure Credits	157	(2)
Index	159