THE RHYTHMIC UNIVERSE 373 



and endocrine center, are postulated, with their mechanism 

 to be explained purely by physico-chemical means on the 

 internal molecular level, the horizon for investigation holds no 

 great promise. With the introduction of hitherto disregarded 

 or unknown external geophysical forces as possible motivators 

 in the periodic physiological processes of animals and plants, 

 however, a whole new perspective of research is opened up. 

 This new dimension of inquiry and its implications are thus 

 presented by Dr. Brown: 



The thesis supported by this article, namely, that during the timing 

 of cycle-lengths of the rhythms in animals and plants in so-called 

 " constant conditions " the organisms are still continuously receiving 

 from the external environment information about the natural geo- 

 physical cycles, removes some of the romantic glamor inherent in 

 the alternative view that all living things must possess within them- 

 selves uncannily accurate clocks capable of measuring, indepen- 

 dently, periods ranging in length from the day to the year. On the 

 other hand, its implications are tremendous with respect to the 

 potentialities involved, through the demonstration that living things 

 are sensitively responding to additional kinds of stimuli at energy 

 levels so low that we have hitherto considered the living organisms 

 completely oblivious to them. These latter potentialities may soon 

 loom importantly in many areas of biology and medicine, especially 

 in such problems as animal navigation and behavior. 



The demonstration that the physical environment of living things 

 is organized temporally in terms of still unknown subtle and highly 

 pervasive forces which the living organisms can resolve encourages 

 one to speculate that there may be some comparable subtle and 

 pervasive spatial organization of the environment which is con- 

 tributing at least in a small way towards accounting for geophysical 

 distribution or periodic migrations of organisms.^^ 



Dr. Brown was led to his conclusion concerning the con- 

 tinuing reception by organisms of unobserved or unknown 

 " information " from the external environment by the failure 

 of his findings to support currently accepted " laws " in physi- 

 ology which did not take such a factor into account. The first 

 such finding was the discovery that many of the so-called 



" Ibid., p. 92. 



