How are Scientists Claiming to be Able to do This?

            Most people have heard others refer to something called a biological clock, this is what our internal rhythm is called. There are genes in us that accumulate different levels of activity throughout the day, these genes control things like our metabolism and wakefulness just to name a few. 

Some scientists think that if they take an in depth look at about one hundred different genes that become active during different times of the day, that they can use them to figure out the exact moment of a person’s death.  Because these genes become more active at different intervals during certain times of the day, scientific researchers speculate that they can use the genes to figure out when somebody dies based on what phase the genes were in at the seemingly unknown time of death or when the genes “shut off”.

How can Humankind Benefit from this Discovery?

By studying brain chemistry in this way scientists might be able to figure out a way to cure or at least reduce the negative effects of things like: sleeping disorders, dementia, mental illnesses and depression.  It also helps them to further understand how the human brain works, which is very important in a lot of different ways.  This kind of discovery can help forensic scientists determine when somebody died. It can furthermore be of use to law enforcement agencies; For example, when they are conducting a homicide investigation or something, knowing the time of death can really help to identify suspects, investigators will have a way better idea of when the person died, and with a little luck possibly, who was around them at their time of death.

How Long Have Scientists Known About This?

Scientists are only just beginning to get into this area of study.  Smithsonian Magazine refers to it as being “ only in it’s Infancy “ which means that we have really far to go, and many years of studying before we will know a whole lot about this subject. 

Wrap up:

Regardless of how much, or how little, we know about this subject, it is really amazing to consider all of the possibilities that are just around the corner for all of us. Discoveries like this don’t happen all that often, and when they do, they are sometimes written off as being “unfounded” or lacking evidence to support the theory.  Scientists have brought us so far in our evolution, and in our knowledge.  It’s my hope that they continue to look into this area of study and deliver some paradigm-altering information to the world about their discoveries.  If scientists can find the root cause of, and the cure, for things like mental illness and depression, it could very well change everything as we know it to be.  Here’s to hoping that science will shed a little more light onto something that for years we have remained in the dark.