a brief introduction into Chronobiology

Chronobiology studies the temporal aspects of life on earth. We are especially interested in endogenous strategies to cope with the regular, highly predictable alterations in the environment that are due to the rotation of the earth. The daily cycles in light and darkness, in turn, produce changes in temperature and humidity, creating a challenge to primitive and complex organisms alike. Microbes, animals and plants all have pronounced daily rhythms from the level of gene expression to behaviour. The observation that these rhythms often persist in constant conditions led to the characterization of a daily biological oscillator, sometimes called a circadian (‘about a day’) clock, that serves to coordinate physiology at the level of the cell as well as in whole animals. Our circadian systems control our lives!