CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS AND THE CIRCADIAN ORGANIZATION OF LIVING SYSTEMS
CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS AND THE CIRCADIAN ORGANIZATION OF LIVING SYSTEMS
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DOI：
10.1101/sqb.1960.025.01.015
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发表时间：
1960-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
PITTENDRIGH, CS
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
PITTENDRIGH, CS
这篇论文的写作受到强烈信念的影响。这与它所提供的理论方案的有效性无关；它关注的是在这个关键时刻，研究“日常”节奏需要大胆而明确的理论形成。我们对从单细胞生物到非洲紫罗兰再到人类的各种生物进行了大量的观察，这使我们感到困扰，而不是幸运。此外，这些观察结果中的大多数都非常引人入胜，这一事实本身就是一种危险——威胁着生物学家的一种常见危险，即把获得更引人入胜的事实和更具体的细节误认为是分析的进步。为了在分析昼夜节律方面取得进展，我们必须认识到问题是什么——或者更确切地说，陈述我们认为的问题是什么——然后继续积累新信息，只有当它检验（唉，很可能是消除）理论的时候。在这一领域，任何详细的解释方案的寿命都很短，但这并不是完全避免理论形成的理由。相反，我认为存在着无穷多的事实，而对于理解一般原则而言，只有相对较少的事实是必需的；理论的功能不仅是，甚至主要是，陈述一个人对这些原则的最佳估计，以便通过发现新的事实来改进这种估计，从而使错误最小化。我们从应用数学家和物理学家那里寻求模型和类比，他们希望知道的不是所有的事实，而是有意义的事实。人们可以反驳可能的反对意见，即只有在回顾时才知道有意义的东西，坚持对问题的当前判断是必要的。因此，理论的形成涉及判断，特别是在一个定义松散的领域；对问题的判断；以及在所有可用的观察中，哪一个是最相关的判断。简而言之，它是一种工具，用于完成尚待完成的工作。无论如何，本文正是本着这种精神写成的；我选择强调那些我认为重要的事实。我已经和我的同事维克多·布鲁斯讨论过这篇论文的所有内容很多次了，我不确定这些想法是从哪里来的；我知道有几个是他的。然而，这并不意味着他宽恕我所有的解释性冒险。我还要感谢埃瓦尔德·鲍明和多萝西·米尼斯；给我的学生，博士。伯查德、罗伯茨和梅纳克，以及斯瓦德、普拉姆利、韦斯、托宾和戈尔登先生——他们都对这里使用的实验结果做出了贡献。最后，我很高兴地向Aschoff和btin教授表示深深的感谢，我最近在他们的实验室里度过了几个月，并获得了古根海姆奖学金。我特别感谢斯瓦德先生允许我复制和解释他关于北极哺乳动物的一些未发表的记录；不用说，他不可能同意我对它们意义的看法。他的工作和我们实验室在这里报道的所有其他实验结果都是由几个来源的资金实现的；来自尤金·希金斯信托基金；美国国家科学基金会；海军研究办公室；以及空军科学研究办公室。
The writing of this paper has been influenced by strongly held convictions. This does not concern the validity of the theoretical scheme it offers; it concerns the need at this juncture in the study of" daily" rhythms for bold and explicit theory formation. We are beset rather than blessed with an enormous number of observations about a great diversity of organisms that range from unicellulars through African violets to man. Moreover, the fact that a majority of these observations is highly fascinating is itself a danger--the common danger threatening the biologist of mistaking acquisition of more fascinating facts, and more concrete detail, for analytic progress. To make progress analyzing circadian rhythms we must perceive what the problems are~ r rather state what we take them to be--and proceed with accumulation of new information only as it tests, and alas probably eliminates, theory. The low life-expectancy of any detailed explanatory scheme in this field is no reason to eschew theory formation altogether. On the contrary, I take it there is an infinity of facts, relatively few of which are necessary for an understanding of general principles; and that the function of theory is not only, or even prineipally, to state one's best estimate of those principles as to minimize the error in improving that estimate through discovery of new fact. The applied mathematicians and physicists from whom we are seeking models and analogs wish to know not all the facts but the significant facts. And one can rebut the likely objection that which are significant is something known only in retrospect by insisting that present judgment on the matter is necessary to proceed. Theory formation, then, involves judgments especially in a loosely defined field; judgment on what the problems are; and judgments on which are the most pertinent of all the available observations. It is, in brief, a tool for what remains to be done. At any rate it is in this spirit that the present essay has been written; I have chosen for emphasis those facts I think are significant. I have discussed everything in this paper so many times with my colleague, Victor Bruce, that I am uncertain where many ideas came from; several I know came from him. This, however, is not to imply that he condones all my interpretive ventures. I am indebted also to Ewald Pauming and Dorothy Minis; to my students Drs. Burchard, Roberts, and Menaker, and Messrs. Swade, Plumlee, Weiss, Tobin, and Golden--they have all contributed to the experimental results used here. And finally I take pleasure in expressing deep gratitude to Professors Aschoff and Btinning in whose laboratories I recently spent several profitable months while enjoying a Guggenheim Fellowship. I owe a special debt to Mr. Swade for permission to reproduce and interpret some unpublished records of his on arctic mammals; it goes without saying that he cannot be held to my views of their meaning. His work and all the other experimental results from our laboratory reported here were made possible by funds from several sources; from the Eugene Higgins Trust; the National Science Foundation; the Office of Naval Research; and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.