Season 2 – Episode 1: Cave studies and fruit flies – the history of chronobiology

In this episode Prof. Orie Schafer, based at the CUNY Advanced
Research Center, takes us through the history of the field of
chronobiology, from its beginnings in plants, through studies in
bunkers with humans, and the discovery of the clock genes thanks
to the tiny but mighty fruit fly.
Links and resources related to the episode’s
content



Photos of Jürgen Aschoff’s 1960’s bunker experiment
[https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/chronobiologie-schlaflabor-im-bunker-a-951188.html]




Original publication on the discovery of the period gene by
Ronald Konopka and Seymour Benzer
[https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.68.9.2112]




Further reading on the history of Chronobiology and the
discovery of the molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6138759/]


Timestamps

(00:00) Intro
(01:10) Introducing Prof. Shafer
(02:14) Beginnings in plants
(05:18) Other organisms
(06:10) Studies in humans: caves and bunkers
(09:53) Where is the circadian clock?
(11:24) Search for the clock genes
(13:22) Why are fruit flies so important?
(14:50) Discovery of the period gene
(17:38) The fly vs. the human clock
(20:19) Flies and modern life
(22:49) Outro
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