Dr Wehr, besides being a practising psychiatrist, is chief of the section on biological rhythms at America's National Institute of Mental Health.

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In cells, enzymes are the basis of the natural circuits that switch genes on and off, maintain biological rhythms and produce molecular answers in response to environmental stimuli.

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Jim Waterhouse, a professor of biological rhythms at Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England, says he often recommends that people crossing three time zones or less and only staying three days or less might want to consider maintaining the same sleeping and waking schedule from home rather than trying to shift the body clock.

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Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young "for their discovery of molecular mechanisms underlying circadian rhythms, " the committee said, which are guided by biological clocks and drive the waking and sleeping cycle.

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