Ebook: The Rhythms Of Life: the Biological Clocks That Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing

Popular science at its most exciting: the breaking new world of chronobiology - understanding the rhythm of life in humans and all plants and animals. The entire natural world is full of rhythms. The early bird catches the worm -and migrates to an internal calendar. Dormice hibernate away the winter. Plants open and close their flowers at the same hour each day. Bees search out nectar-rich flowers day after day. There are cicadas that can breed for only two weeks every 17 years. And in humans: why are people who work anti-social shifts more illness prone and die younger? What is jet-lag and ca.;Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 The day within and the day without; 2 Telling time; 3 Oscillators, clocks and hourglasses; 4 The challenge of daily change; 5 The search for the clock; 6 Light on the clock; 7 The molecular clock: protein 'tick' and RNA 'tock'; 8 A few species and many clocks; 9 The changing seasons; 10 Clockwork evolution; 11 Sleep and performance; 12 SAD shifts; 13 Time to take your medicine; 14 Future times: Uchronia or Dyschronia; Glossary of common terms; Appendix I Rhythms in humans.