The study of modern botany looks at the plant world and sees just how dynamic it really is. If you watch the way some desert plants use their clock to gain maximum light, they turn east before the sun comes up and they continue turning even after the sun goes down. Plant biological clocks are a very spooky phenomenon but one with enormous potential in agriculture. One of these phenomena, known as photoperiodism, also controls the reproductive cycle. If you could manipulate how crop plants use day lengths to control flowering, you could develop a new generation of rapid cycling crops that could be harvested two or three times per season instead of only once.
Some plants are more susceptible to pathogens at certain times of day than at others.
Photoperiodism is also true for animals. To make certain that mating occurs in the summer when food is plentiful, for example, the maturity of the testes of the common hamster is controlled by day length. At the other extreme, sheep need short days for optimum breeding. The ultimate goal of his work, Kay comments, is to understand the workings of the biological clock and then turn that knowledge into practical applications. The island of Jersey is situated on the outer edges of the French Gulf of Saint-Malo where the tide comes rushing back into the bay at tremendous and often deadly speeds.