The Rhythmic Nature of Animals and Plants

Brown, Frank

The thesis supported in this article, namely that, during the timing of cycle-lengths of the rhythms in animals and plants in so-called 'constant conditions,' the organisms are still continuously receiving from the external environment information about the natural geophysical cycles, removes some of the romantic glamour inherent in the alternative view, that all living things must possess within them uncannily accurate clocks capable of measuring, independently, periods ranging in length from the day to the year. On the other hand, its implications are tremendous with respect to the potentialities involved through the demonstration that living things are sensitively responding to additional kinds of stimuli at energy levels so low that we have hitherto considered the living organism completely oblivious of them. these latter potentialities may soon loom importantly in many areas of biology and medicine, especially in such problems as animal navigation and behavior.

The Rhythmic Nature of Animals and Plants

Series