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By Gregory Mone Popular Science Adjust font size:
    (PopSci.com The insects slept normally when bathed in light for 24 hours a day but tossed and turned when shifted from one day/night cycle, or "time zone," to another. It turns out they were suffering from something akin to serious jet lag. The flies, Sehgal discovered, lacked a protein she's dubbed "Jet" that plays a key role in regulating their body clocks. No Jet, and the flies lose their ability to adapt to changes in the duration of lightness and darkness. If a similar protein is at work in humans -- a likely scenario, she believes -- it could be possible to banish jet lag altogether. The allure of such a pharmaceutical would be hard to resist: A traveler could simply pop a pill to increase his light sensitivity, essentially resetting his biological clock and allowing him to adapt instantly to a new time zone. |
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Groggy fruit flies could lead to the perfect sleeping pill for time-zone hoppers.
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) -- Geneticist Amita Sehgal of the University of Pennsylvania was recently studying fruit flies in her lab when she noticed something peculiar. 
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