Tony Taft reports:-
On a misty but warmer day we had an attendance of 22 with 2 apologies
Our talk today was by Roger Avery a biologist affiliated with the University of Bristol and other places.
The talk was entitled Biological Clocks, how animals and plants tell the time.
Roger last gave a talk to our club fifteen years ago.
The talk started on the subject of birds and how they use their biological clocks to tell them when it is time to migrate. He centred on the Arctic Tern, a bird that travels the greatest distance from the Arctic circle to the Antarctic circle, a round-trip journey of about 30,000 kilometres ( 18,641 miles ).
He also talked about other birds like the Starling, the Lark and Owls, all using their biological clocks to ensure that they all head off to warmer countries at the same time.
The 14th of February St Valentine’s Day is the date that all birds start to think about mating. How do they know the date when the weather and light can be so different each year? Here’s an example of how wonderful nature can be.
All plants have biological clocks in them so they know how to come out of the ground or shed their leaves at the same times each year.
Our talk moved on to the River Avon where research was done on the algae that lives in the mud and migrates up and down every day at different times of the day and tides to keep covered by the water.
Samples of the mud and water were taken in jars and placed in a dark cellar with no light or any external stimulation and it was found that the biological clocks of the algae continued for six days before they started to break down.
Roger also commented that even our red blood cells have biological clocks but what exactly this does in our body he didn’t elaborate on.
We all know about the effects of jet lag when big time differences screw up our body clocks, even altering our clocks from winter time to summer time can make a difference to us, why can they not just leave it alone and let us stay on the same time all year.
Roger’s talk was quite complicated and I have only just scratched over the surface in this review but we all found it very fascinating.
I heard him say that he has lots of interesting talks in his repertoire so we hope it is not another fifteen years before we invite him back.
All of the above report, words and photos provided by Tony Taft
Paignton Probus Club 