Page 130 - AWSAR 2.0

106 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Out of the Lab: A Clock Conversation
Mr. Chitrang Dani*
Email: chitrangdani@gmail.com
Taking a break from my experiments, I was visiting my cousin on a Sunday morning. She walked in with a tired face, pulled out a chair and immediately said as she sat, “I was feeling too groggy to get out of my bed, but was hungry at the same time. Isn’t that weird?”
I replied, “Not so surprising for me; I’ve seen you in the same state almost every Sunday when you have been up late on Saturday night.”
“Really? Every Sunday? Why do you think this happens?”
“Did you know that your body has a clock of its own, whose job it is to keep track of local time? Your body clock schedules the timing of most important processes: from sleeping to feeding, on a 24-hour scale, and determines
what happens when. This 24-h circadian clock is regulated by the cycling features of your environment and is especially sensitive to light. Therefore, if you stay up late, your rhythm is likely to get delayed the next day,” I replied.
“Wait, if my circadian clock is delayed because I was up late, why am I feeling hungry at the right time? This is when I have breakfast almost every day! That should mean my clock is running on time, right?” she said.
Her inquisitiveness encouraged me to explain further, “Well, your internal clock is actually a system made up of multiple clocks. We have various clocks in the body– in the brain, liver, kidney, lungs, intestine, and all other organs that function pretty much like an orchestra. This is why when you feel sleepy and hungry at the same time, it suggests
* Mr. Chitrang Dani, Ph.D. Scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, is pursuing his research on “Evolution of Circadian Rhythms in Drosophila melanogaster Populations Reared in Semi- Natural Conditions”. His popular science story entitled “Out of the Lab: a Clock Conversation” has been selected for AWSAR Award.