Chronobiology: anatomy in time

Chronobiology is that branch of science that objectively explores and quantifies mechanisms of biological time structure, including the important rhythmic manifestations of life. It is the study of biological rhythms. This paper introduces chronobiology and some of its vocabulary, principles, and techniques. A circadian rhythm is a regularly repetitive, quantitative physiological change with a period of about 24 hr (20-28), but the spectrum of rhythms includes those with periods less than 20 hr (ultradian) and longer than 28 hr (infradian). These rhythms are ubiquitous among the eukaryotes, innate and endogenous; their periods are precisely controlled by synchronizers in the environment. Rhythms can be manipulated by altering their synchronizers or by introducing more dominant ones. When organisms are removed from their environment and placed in constant conditions, rhythms revert to their natural frequencies and free-run. All of an organism's rhythms operate simultaneously, but their peaks and troughs do not necessarily occur at the same time. There are rhythms in susceptibility to drugs; a fixed dose may have a therapeutic effect at one point along the 24 hr time scale and a harmful one at another. Knowledge of these rhythms can be important when designing experimental or treatment protocols and interpreting results. Examples are provided to show that single-time-point sampling can lead to erroneous results, unless biological periodicity is taken into consideration.