Understanding how biological oscillators work is
central to understanding life, as processes as diverse
as the control of the cell cycle, circadian rhythms,
the heart beat, and rhythmic locomotory and respiratory
rhythms share certain fundamental properties common
to all oscillators, such as the ability to be entrained
and reset by appropriate stimuli. To understand how
each specific biological oscillator functions it is
both necessary to identify its molecular and biochemical
components, and then to understand how each process
depends on time and other factors. For example, to
understand the heart beat it was necessary to separately
identify and characterize the voltae and time dependence
of the ion channels of the heart, describe these with
appropirate ifferential equation and then simulate
their integrated output. This allows the systematic
examination of how the frequency and amplitude of
the osciallation depend on its underlying properties.
