Science News releases special issue on time
Science News is releasing a special magazine issue () devoted to the study of time and our understanding of it in the physical, biological and mental worlds. This is one of three special issues planned for this year 鈥� a special issue on general relativity is planned for the October 17 issue and the magazine will have its annual Top 25 Stories of the Year in the December 25 issue.
Read an excerpt from Eva Emerson鈥檚 editor鈥檚 note about the features available in the special report on time:
Investigating both the orderly and disorderly dimensions of time provides the focus for this special issue, aimed at offering new perspectives on something most of us take for granted. For instance, Andrew Grant explores , a conundrum that has perplexed physicists for over a century. The new proposal suggests that the universe actually does run backward as well as forward in time (as our brains would perceive it).
As it turns out, our brains鈥� perception of time is quite complex, as Laura Sanders reports. She describes and explores some of the troubles scientists face in studying how the mind pieces together data from its many timepieces.
Tina Hesman Saey鈥檚 takes an evolutionary perspective, updating readers on new efforts to explain how and why circadian rhythms might have evolved in living things to begin with. Minimizing exposure to threats in the environment such as ultraviolet light and oxygen may have fueled the development of internal clocks. So too might have the cell鈥檚 search for efficiency鈥夆�斺�塻aving energy by doing things in bursts, instead of continuously.
As illustrates, the human ability to track time grows ever more precise, as does our understanding of how time鈥檚 nature influences our world, brains and bodies. But many mysteries endure. And probably will for a long time.
See the collection of stories in the editor鈥檚 pick.
In addition, there will be online-only features associated with this issue, including an of the timeline of timepieces; a ; and blog posts on shift work and social jetlag from Bethany Brookshire in and kids鈥� perception of time from Laura Sanders in .
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