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

Light O'Clock · Sep 3, 2024 · 25m

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…