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CLOCK GENE LOCATION. “We now know that the central clock genes in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) are primarily entrained by light, and SCN outputs synchronize peripheral clock genes in cells of other tissues. The clock machinery is comprised of oscillatory positive and negative transcriptional-translational feedback loops involving the clock-related genes and their products.” https://lnkd.in/dvGxeQP View in LinkedIn

CLOCK GENES. "Mammalian circadian rhythms are driven by endogenous biological oscillators, the biological clock. Major molecular insight into the biological clock has been gained since the identification and cloning of the first clock genes.” https://lnkd.in/dvGxeQP View in LinkedIn

NO SUCCESSION PLAN. “To give another metric of the academic maturity of the field: ​only five people in the US have ​ever​ received PhDs in the physical sciences for dissertations whose primary focus was SETI​, only two of whom are astronomers today. Four were trained at Harvard by Paul Horowitz, eventually building a dedicated optical SETI observatory. The fifth is Andrew Siemion, trained in radio astronomy at Berkeley by Dan Werthimer and Geoff Bower—today Dr. Siemion serves as the director of the Breakthrough Listen SETI project and as the Oliver Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

Coin shell fossils in Girona limestone. View in LinkedIn

SENSING TIME. ‘The other major rhythm is based on the seasonal calendar known as photoperiodism. In this case, the organism responds either to annual changes in day length, or directly to the length of day/night, and uses this information to determine the timing of key events such as migration or the entry into a dormant state. Both circadian and photoperiodic events rely on an ability to precisely measure time.” http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/1/131.full View in LinkedIn

GREATER RHYTHMS. “The daily rotation of the earth on its axis and the annual revolution of the earth around the sun generate patterns that have profound impacts on daily and seasonal activity patterns of organisms. Feeding, mating, sleeping, and indeed most behavioral and physiological activities show a distinct rhythm with a peak of activity occurring at a certain time of the daily light:dark cycle.” https://lnkd.in/dG_GuJ2 View in LinkedIn

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SO ENDS this string on the political squashing of astrobiology. The question of whether we are alone in the universe is one of the most important open questions today. Imagine waking tomorrow to news that the Little Green Men had landed on Earth. The recent UFO footage release by the Pentagon of footage taken by US Navy pilots has sparked a mainstream resurgence in the topic. Its suppression for so long smells like clumsy governments sitting on certain knowledge that it deems will panic the stupid populous. https://lnkd.in/dpXfjhZ View in LinkedIn

THE TINY WORKD OF THE HUGE QUESTION. “Today, there are only two regularly scheduled graduate courses in SETI, anywhere. This lack of training is a large part of the reason the SETI community is so small.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn

CALLS FOR FUNDING. “NASA should therefore provide searches for technosignatures with the same support that it long ago began providing searches for biosignatures.​ This should include workshops, special funding calls, and partnerships with academic and private research centers in addition to the traditional routes such as XRP and Exobiology. The NASA Astrobiology Institutes have reorganized, but the new Astrobiology Research Coordination Networks, especially that related to Life Detection, are natural places to embrace the search for technosignatures.” https://lnkd.in/djnMhU6 View in LinkedIn