what a plant sees....

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This week, in What a Plant Knows, we are learning about the different ways plants perceive light, and what they do the information they perceive (grow toward light, know when to flower, perceive that they are in the shade of other plants, etc).

Plant photoreceptors and animal photoreceptors are different -- with one exception.  We were told that "all organisms have biological clocks, and all organisms need a way to set our biological clocks," and that we all set our clocks by using cryptochrome.

I wondered where we humans keep our cryptochrome, and I found this cool article about cryptochrome.  The answer is that animals keep their cryptochrome in their eyes.

Apparently cryptochrome is sensitive to magnetic fields, and is why birds know where the earth's magnetic fields are (many birds use this info for navigation).  Humans have lots of cryptochrome, but it's not clear if we have any ability to detect magnetic fields.

Who knew?!?



This led me to wonder what about blind people's clocks?  It is totally excellent that we can just go find out!!!  I googled

biological clock blind people

and found that it's likely that their clocks are messed up by their lack of visual system.



I just love being able to satisfy my curiosity so easily..............

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