Response to Pervasive Geophysical Factors and the Biological Clock Problem

Abstract

Before embarking upon the specific topic suggested to me, I would like to spend a few moments upon the relationship of it to the broader subject of clocks and rhythms. We must be certain that semantic barriers are removed, that our terms for concepts agree, or if not, that the different languages are understandable to one another. The term "clock" arises from the medieval Latin clocca, or old French cloque (cloche), meaning bell. Just as the origin of the term reflected its time-signaling and not its time-measuring role, so in common usage a clock is simply an instrument for indicating fractions of a natural intrinsic time series, the solar day, or in other words, phase points in the natural daily cycle, without regard to its intrinsic time-measuring capacity.