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posted by martyb on Monday October 02 2017, @11:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'll-sleep-on-it dept.

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to a trio of American scientists for their discoveries on the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythms – in other words, the 24-hour body clock.

According to the Nobel committee's citation, £825,000 prize shared between American scientists Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young were recognised for their discoveries explaining "how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronised with the Earth's revolutions." All three winners are from the US. Hall, 72, has retired but spent the majority of his career at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachussetts, where fellow laureate Rosbash, 73, is still a faculty member. Young, 68, works at Rockefeller University in New York.

The team identified a gene within fruit flies that controls the creatures' daily rhythm, known as the "period" gene. This gene encodes a protein within the cell during the night which then degrades during the day.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/02/nobel-prize-for-medicine-awarded-for-insights-into-internal-biological-clock

[Also Covered By]:

Body clock scientists win Nobel Prize

How we tick: U.S. 'body clock' scientists win Nobel medicine prize


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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:14AM (1 child)

    by mhajicek (51) on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:14AM (#576417)

    When you have to get to work at a certain time, no, it's the hours o'clock.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
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  • (Score: 1) by rylyeh on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:46AM

    by rylyeh (6726) <{kadath} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:46AM (#576425)
    Which gradually changes day by day with respect to the actual sunrise. Not that I don't agree that flexible hours are good for worker health!
    --
    "a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."