Upcoming UC Davis Science Cafe Event To Look At Our Internal Clocks

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

DAVIS, CA -- If you want to know more about circadian timing and how and why it affects everything from human beings to fruit flies, don't miss the Science Café session on Wednesday, March 8 in Davis.

Molecular geneticist Joanna Chiu, vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, will speak on "Circadian Timing Is Everything: From a Good Night's Sleep to Minimizing Insecticide Use" at the Science Café session at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 8 in the G St. Wunderbar, 28 G St., Davis.

Professor Jared Shaw of the UC Davis Division of Math and Physical Science is hosting the informal session. Free and open to all interested persons, it is sponsored by the Capital Science Communicators and the UC Davis Department of Chemistry. Science Café events take place in casual settings and aim to feature an engaging conversation with a scientist about a particular topic.

Chiu, an associate professor who specializes in molecular genetics of animal behavior, joined the UC Davis Department of Entomology faculty in June 2010. She received her doctorate in molecular genetics from the Department of Biology at New York University.

"All living things on our planet, from bacteria to humans, organize their daily activities around the perpetuating 24-hour day-night cycles, the result of earth rotating on its own axis and orbiting around the sun," Chiu says. "In order for organisms to anticipate predictable variations in their environment that naturally occurs over the 24-hour cycle and coordinate their physiology and behavior to perform at their best, they rely on an internal biological clock."

"At the science cafe presentation, I will discuss how this internal clock, termed the circadian clock, affects many important aspects of our lives, including the timing of when we feel tired and want to go to bed, the time-of-day our immune systems are most susceptible to pathogen attack, and even when medicines should be taken to give you 'the most bang for your buck'," she said. "In addition, I will discuss the consequences of when the circadian clock is 'broken' or 'off-kilter' because of diseases, work schedule, jet lag, and light pollution."

Kathy Keatley Garvey is a communications specialist with the UC Davis Department of Entamology and Nematology

Photo of Joanna Chiu via Kathy Keatley Garvey