Light and Circadian Biology #1 - Why is Light Important?
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young for their elucidation of the molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm. Their pioneering work in Drosophila uncovered the internal oscillators, or clocks, that synchronise cellular metabolism and organismal behaviour to the light/dark cycle to generate biological rhythms with 24-hour periodicity.
Circadian rhythms control our sleep/wake cycle and act like a 24-hour master clock paying attention to changes in light throughout the day and night. This master clock is called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus within our brain. Light signals reach the SCN via a dedicated retinal pathway, the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). The retina contains, among other things, a photopigment called melanopsin. When light in our cells is sensed by melanopsin, signals are passed by neurotransmitters through the RHT to the SCN, which integrates all light signals and serves as the master clock of the circadian rhythm.
Melanopsin is also present in our skin, meaning that your entire body pays attention to your immediate light environment controlling a biochemical cascade of hormone production, alertness, sleep, body temperature and organ function. You can think of yourself as a human solar panel.
Light frequencies that reach the earth’s surface throughout the day vary mostly in relation to the angle of the sun. The light spectrum is far greater than just the light we see with our eyes as illustrated below.
That’s right! You saw it correctly, X-rays, microwaves, radar, radio and broadcast band are also light frequencies that our bodies pay close attention to.
Light is life. Remember when you learned in early high school science class about Photosynthesis? If so, then you know that the entire food-web is linked to photosynthesis. Plants take water and carbondyoxide (), along with the power in light to make matter; in this case glucose. Mitochondria in us reverses the process of photosynthesis as they use glucose and oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water.
In 2018, buying and eating a banana in the wintertime no matter where you are on the planet is as simple as going to the local grocery store. But, bananas don’t grow in the wintertime, this should catch your attention and leave you asking, so should we really be eating bananas in winter even though we can get them at the local supermarket or convenience store?
All foods break down to electrons and protons in our bodies and our mitochondria pays attention to them. Mitochondria are tiny but powerful organelles that live in great numbers within each of our cells. They create water for our bodies and generate our energy (ATP) via these food electrons passing down the Electron Transport Chain (ETC). If these electrons that are being consumed and sent down the ETC are not congruent with the information from sunlight received on our skin and in our eyes, then we have a circadian mismatch; immediately signalling inflammation in the body. Inflammation = pH = acidity = a build-up of protons = swelling/bloating = bad news. Food MUST be eaten in the proper light context that it is made. The power that is vested in the sun determines what can and can’t grow and thus what should and shouldn’t be eaten.Now you can see why eating a banana in winter is such a disaster.
Light wakes us up, light tells us when to sleep, light energises us and builds hormones in our bodies, light tells us what we can and can’t eat. We absorb and emit light from our cells and truly are beings of light. If you don’t know much about light, I hope this has inspired you to see the light and think a little deeper about light and its primordial link to life as we know it. Let the light be with you!
How does it really work in biology?
The photoelectric effect creates time in biology. Time perception is lost when we sleep or are unconscious. This is because light stimulus is almost entirely absent. Waking up after a high-quality night’s sleep time perception is distorted. Same goes for being under anaesthesia, anaesthetic stops the brain from receiving electrons from the CSF which would otherwise keep the body awake and perceiving time. When people awake from a general anaesthetic, time appears to have gone nowhere because it was never experienced or perceived. This is because the stimulus to light on electrons was interrupted in the eyes, skin, gut and lung surfaces. Time seems to speed up as we age because we have a reduced ability to slow light down within our tissues. When we are young and healthy, time is dilated compared to others who are older or unwell. Time links mass to energy and both link to DHA and its pi-electron clouds in biology. Light only interacts with electrons. Bound to DHA on one side is an electron donor and the other is an electron acceptor. This is how the DC electric current moves through the body, delocalising electrons leading to optical signalling. The more powerful the light, the more the photonic energy can act in a non-linear, waveform, manner. DHA has 22 carbon bonds within its structure, making it the lipid raft with the largest distance between the electron acceptor on one side and the electron donor on the other. Thus, DHA and its pi-electron cloud acts like a giant wire filled with electrons, making it the ideal biologic antenna for photons.
In the universe it appears light cannot stand still unless it is at absolute zero. Light can be slowed down by atoms in a lattice, but in the vacuum of space it has a set speed. When light is slowed down its energy can be harvested, such as in the mitochondria. This is only possible in the presence of magnetic monopole, such as water. Light can stand still when electric and magnetic fields keep the photons and neutrinos contained. Mitochondria have electric and magnetic fields which may also contain a larger amount of photonic energy when the fields are strong enough. This means with a high mitochondrial redox potential within the mitochondria can hold more light energy. In a high redox state, the mitochondria shrink and become more energy efficient, adding to making it easier for the mitochondria to extend the size of the EZ and photonic energy within the cell.
Light has no mass when it is released from any source. Light is the only thing with a constant relationship to time. Einstein said, ‘light speed is constant with respect to time’. This implies that space and time must bend in relation to light. Therefore, light is the key to our SCN (clock mechanism in above the optic chiasm) and circadian biology. Water is imprinted by lights collision to create space/time geometry in our cells, from here time can manifest. Light can be a wave or particle. the particle is called an electron and the waveform is called a photon. DHA captures both the particle and wave, turning it into a DC electric current. It has been preserved in cell membranes for 600m years for this reason. DHA levels and number of electrons in the tissues withing the body determine how the organism perceives time.
In physics all things degenerate to randomness/entropy. It is a bias towards equilibrium. In physical systems matter does not regenerate. But in biology damage can be regenerated via regeneration systems. This is where physics differs from biology. As life became more complex its signalling became more precise. The brain was likely originally developed to tell time via day/night signalling to the SCN. Then mitochondria were added, and the signalling became more precise and capable of complexity. Then DHA was added and an even finer tuned engine could be developed. This can be thought of as the difference between the engine of a 1958 Curvet compared with a 2020 Curvet, the key difference is the signalling precision and efficiency of the engine electrically.
Time is a function of the interaction between light and water molecules. When light interacts with water it slows down, and water becomes an optical detector for the merger of the collision. Time is the quotient of the interaction. When light slows down telomeres lengthen. Disease is aging, illness and disease is time loss. The location of the illness is the tissue that is aging the fastest.
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