Plants, animals and humans are adapted to Earth's rotationFor many years we have known that living organisms, including humans, have an internal biological clock that helps them anticipate and adapt to the regular rhythm of the day. For example, the mimosa plant opens its leaves towards the sun during the daytime and closes them at dusk; and dogs sleep at night and remain pretty active during the daytime. The circadian rhythm – from the Latin words circa meaning "around" and dies meaning "day" – explains how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with oscillations of day and night caused by Earth's rotations \cite{release}.These circadian rhythms are ancient and highly conserved throughout evolution. Circadian rhythms have been observed in unicellular organisms, including fungi, as well as plants, insects, rodents, and humans. This suggests that the ability to optimize behavior according to the amount of light in our environment has been incredibly important for the success of organisms \cite{ibez}... so important, that a group of scientists was recently awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering more about how this all works.
