Your body: the ultimate time-keeper

How do we tell time? Looking at your watch or the clock can merely tell you what the measurement of time is and the relation to that measurement. So what exactly is time? More importantly, how does our brain know what time it is?

Simply put, there is no complete answer, according to professor of neurobiology and psychology at UCLA, Dean Bounomano. Who also happens to be a member of the Brain Research Institute (BRI).

“The circadian clock is probably the best understood of the brain’s timekeepers. And truth be told, organisms don’t even need a brain to anticipate the earth’s daily rhythms. Humans, fruit flies, plants, and even some bacteria have circadian rhythms.”

The bellow TedEd vid perfectly describes how our bodies are able to keep time and how it utilises that knowledge to perform everyday tasks.

Featured image: Nick Webb via Flickr