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from the 24h37m22s-should-be-close-enough-for-anyone dept.
A team of scientists from Holland, Germany and the UK's University of Manchester studied animals in which variation in a single gene dramatically speeds up the natural circadian cycle from 24 to 20 hours (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516442113).
It is the first study to demonstrate of the value of having an internal body clock which beats in tune with the speed of the earth's rotation.
The researchers released animals with 24 hour or 20 hour clocks into outdoor pens, with free access to food, and studied how the proportion of animals with fast clocks changed in the population over a period of 14 months.
This allowed the team to study the impact of clock-speed in context of the "real-world" rather than indoors.
Mice with fast-running clock gradually become less common with successive generations, so that by the end of the study, the population was dominated by animals with "normal" 24h clocks.
The research has potentially important implications for human health: clock-disruption associated with abnormal work and lighting conditions, such as night shift work leads to health problems, such as increased risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Wouldn't Mars-born humans gradually select for circadian rhythms that match Mars's rotation?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 27 2016, @03:37AM
Humanity basically has no selection pressure anymore. Even the weakest and dumbest individuals can survive and breed.
So there's no way that the humans on a tightly managed Mars colony will evolve a Mars-attuned circadian cycle. And there's no need to; if you really want that mutation, you can use embryo editing to make it happen.
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(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 27 2016, @06:35AM
Are you somehow under impression that only strongest and smartest survive? That's not how evolution works.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday January 27 2016, @07:37AM
I didn't use those terms, and if I did, I would use them loosely.
The point is that there is very little selection pressure for humans today. Humans on Mars won't get selected.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Dunbal on Wednesday January 27 2016, @12:01PM
Even the weakest and dumbest individuals can survive and breed.
Yes, this is the entire premise of the comedy turned documentary called "Idiocracy".