Artificial light: a sudden change in the environment; is it good?
For survival, life-forms adapt to changes that occur in the surrounding environment. In fact, any change in the environment can lead to adaptive adjustment in living organisms. This basic mechanism of evolution is a very slow process & may occur over a period of many thousand years in multi-cellular organisms like the human being. But in the case of artificial light there has been a sudden alteration in the environment. Life-style changes that occurred after discovery of artificial light have brought human life under the compulsion for adaptive behavior over a period of less than 100 years that could be an evolutionary catastrophe. Understanding Patho-physiology The human brain has a small neuro-endocrine organ known as the Pineal body or Pineal gland. This Pineal gland and its functions have been under extensive clinical research and study for the past three or four decades. Now it has been firmly established that the pineal gland & one of its hormonal products, Melatonin, is importan
