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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: 1) by turonah on Wednesday January 27 2016, @11:58AM
Given that research has shown the average circadian rhythm to be approximately 24 hours 11 minutes (http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1999/07.15/bioclock24.html), a difference of 26 minutes between that and the Martian day is not likely to be as impacting as a four-hour difference in animals that can't knowingly adjust appropriately (i.e. - artificial lighting). I'd suspect other planets with greater differences in time would have more impact.
Entirely possible that Mars-born humans could "select" for a trait inducing a longer circadian rhythm, but it would have to provide an advantage of some sort (like longevity or higher reproduction rate). Otherwise, us "normies" would get along better on Mars than people with disabilities do here on Earth.