Cold-Clocked
The Birds & The Bees (& The Butterflies)
Metabolism & Food
The anatomy of a clock
Clock genes
200

These small mammals can drop their body temperature during daily bouts of torpor to 0°C - but when they're awake, they're not afraid to steal your trail mix

What are golden mantled ground squirrels?

200

To communicate the location of food sources to her sisters, honey bee foragers perform this maneuver inside of the hive

What is the waggle dance?

200

Though metabolic tissues like the liver shift their timing in response to changes in food timing, this brain structure generally maintains its phase across diet changes

What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus?

200

The hunt for the anatomical basis for circadian rhythms began in earnest after Janet Harker reported rhythms in headless inviduals of this species

What are cockroaches?

200

In mice, its negative arm consists of Per and Cry genes, but in fruit flies per and tim do the job

What is the transcription-translation feedback loop?

400

A rhythm that doesn't change its period much even when things cool down substantially is said to be this

What is temperature-compensated?

400

Honey bees develop measurable circadian rhythms around 10 days old — around the time that this behavior begins

What is foraging?

400

These insulin-secreting pancreatic cells have been shown to maintain autonomous rhythms in culture

What are islet cells?

400

Using genetically- or environmentally-induced period variations, these types of experiments were critical for demonstrating the sufficiency of structures in governing circadian rhythms

What are transplantation studies?

400

This strategy was used by Vitaterna et al. in 1994 and Konopka & Benzer in 1971 to track down clock genes for the first time - not to create X-Men

What is mutagenesis?

600

When animals exit a torpor state, they return to this term for normal body temperature

What is euthermia?

600

The long-distance migration of this organism is notable for its trans-generational nature

What is the monarch butterfly?
600

This assay measures the response of an organism to an influx of carbohydrate

What is a glucose tolerance test?

600

The suprachiasmatic nucleus is considered the central clock in mammals, but evidence exists that this rhythmic phenomenon can persist without it

What is food entrainment?

600

First discovered in hamsters, we now know that this allele is a hyperactive variant of Casein kinase 1ε

What is the tau mutation?

800

Hosted by Katmai National Park and the Katmai Conservancy, this annual event celebrates some seriously major Ursi as they prepare for winter

What is Fat Bear Week?

800

German for "migratory restlessness," this term describes the change in behavior exhibited by some captive birds during their migratory season

What is Zugunruhe?

800

During this stressful condition, rodents can recall timing information about previous food availability

What is food deprivation?

800

In some birds, the suprachiasmatic nucleus is joined by the retina and this other brain structure to form a dispersed central clock

What is the pineal gland?

800

The molecular clock of cyanobacteria, distinct from that of eukaryotes, is often referred to as this

Post-translational oscillator (PTO)

1000

This biochemical ratio, which represents the change in a reaction's rate with a set increase in temperature, has a very Scrabble-appropriate name

What is Q10?

1000

This sturdy bird can travel over 8,000 miles in a single flight - the longest known continuous flight of any organism

What is the bar-tailed godwit?

1000

This physiological property, which describes how well something responds to a glucose-uptake signal, is generally higher during the active phase (you hope!)

What is insulin sensitivity?

1000

The rhythm in this term for molting was used as an output in brain transplant experiments performed in silk moths in 1979

What is ecdysis?

1000

This filamentous fungi features a molecular clock mechanism similar to its fellow eukaryotes -- but with different genes

What is Neurospora crassa?

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