Temperature Independence of Emergence Timing in Drosophila

The birth of chronobiology: a botanical observation Circadian biology began with the observations made by de Marian in 1729. This brief article discusses the circumstances and significance of this discovery.

In the original article by de Mairan, several important aspects of circadian clocks are highlighted. Surprisingly, clinical implications were already considered. “It may have a probable connection with the ability of sick people to differentiate day and night from their bed.”

Then, in the discussion of the results, de Mairan and Marchant drew an interesting parallel with sick people who can feel the day or night from their bed without actually seeing the light. With this simple comment de Mairan and Marchant insinuated that humans may have an endogenous clock as well.Please refer to the article for more details.

Consider the historical impact of this finding and the experimental design during de Mairan’s time. The discovery was made in plants, but how might it be relevant to human endogenous clocks?