Artificial Light and Biological Time

Overview

Can we use smart lighting choices to have our cake and eat it?

Life on earth has evolved to use changing patterns of light to keep track of time over the 24hrs of the day and 12 months of the year. The appearance of artificial light disrupts the ancient relationships between light and time and represents an unprecedented challenge for biological clocks.

Professor Robert Lucas will talk about this conflict between human choices and biological time. Professor Robert Lucas will cover what biological clocks are, how they work, and their relationship with light. Professor Robert Lucas will then explore how the conflict between biological and anthropogenic time shapes the modern human experience and impacts the living world around us.

Professor Robert Lucas will finally consider the extent to which we can use smart lighting choices to have our cake and eat it.

Who should attend?

This talk will appeal to anyone curious about sleep, health, modern life, and the natural world, from students, researchers, and science enthusiasts to parents, shift workers, designers, planners, and anyone interested in how artificial light affects our bodies, behaviour, and environment.

Questions to consider

About people and health

• What are the most important ways light influences our biological clocks?
• How much artificial light at night is enough to disrupt sleep or circadian rhythms?
• Are some people more vulnerable than others to light disruption?
• What is the impact of screens compared with room lighting or street lighting?
• What practical changes can people make at home to better support healthy biological timing?

About modern life

• Is it possible to balance 24-hour societies with the needs of our biological clocks?
• What are the biggest conflicts between human schedules and biological time?
• Are shift workers facing unavoidable harms, or are there realistic ways to reduce them?
• Has modern lighting fundamentally changed human behaviour in ways we still underestimate?

About design and policy

• What do “smart lighting choices” actually look like in homes, workplaces, and cities?
• Can lighting be designed to improve health while still meeting needs for safety, productivity, and comfort?
• What should architects, employers, schools, or local authorities be doing differently?
• Is there good evidence that changes in public lighting can reduce harm to wildlife?
• Where is the line between helpful innovation and overreliance on technology?

About the wider environment

• How does artificial light affect animals, plants, and ecosystems?
• Are there particular kinds of lighting that are especially damaging to the living world?
• Can reducing light pollution benefit both biodiversity and human wellbeing?
• What lessons can humans learn from how life on earth evolved with natural light cycles?

Practical Information

The talk includes a Q&A session.Booking is essential.

Accessibility Information

The venue is wheelchair accessible with an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Please contact us regarding any specific accessibility requirements you may have by emailing events@manlitphil.ac.uk