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What was the meaning of "reset" in this letter? "change"?, "setting again?" , “setting back to the original state"

We did not "reset the time" in these animals. We put them into an environment where they had normal light dark cycles, but were given access to food only from 1pm-5pm in the afternoon, when they are usually asleep. This resulted in the animals changing their circadian rhythms to begin their active period about 3 hours before the food presentation, so around 10am rather than around 7pm.

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    My take is that the writer means that they did not use a change in lighting to modify the circadian rhythm of the animals. This is not clearly written -- saying "we did not reset the time" is redundant and more confusing than enlightening, given the subsequent sentence.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 16:57
  • ... And giving access to the food only from 1pm till 5pm could certainly be claimed to be 'resetting the time'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 16:59
  • @HotLicks I am so grateful to receive your response to my inquiry !!!:D
    – kimsungbum
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 17:20
  • @HotLicks Probably I assume that it is because a questioner has interpreted the usage of reset differently from a responder of letter. In this perspective, may I ask how you think of this?
    – kimsungbum
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 1:13
  • There is no obvious way one could "reset" the time awareness of an animal the same way you "reset" an alarm clock by pressing the button on top, so the other meaning -- to set to a new value -- would be the only one that makes sense.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 12:32

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Suppose I buy a new clock or computer or phone. One of the first things I do is to set the time. I check my local time from an accurate source and synchronise my new purchase.

Suppose, however, I have an item that has lost its correct time setting. It is showing a time but the time is incorrect. Then I need to reset the time for that piece of equipment.

In this case they enclose the phrase from, We did not “reset the time” in these animals, in quotes to indicate that you cannot reset an animal in the same way you can reset a piece of equipment. The quotes indicate that they are aware of the fact and they go on to explain what they did in reality.

Does that answer it?

EDIT - I agree with Hot Licks' first comment under your question.

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  • I really appreciate it so much. :D!!
    – kimsungbum
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 17:17
  • 2
    I take from their use of quotes (and previous reading) that "reset the time [sense]" is jargon for a method they didn't use, namely setting up an artificial day/night cycle. The short quote reads to me like a less-than-fluent piece of scientific writing -- not necessarily a non-native author but perhaps someone new to formal writing.
    – Chris H
    Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 19:30
  • Probably I assume that it is because a questioner has interpreted the usage of reset differently from a responder of letter. In this perspective, may I ask how you think of this?
    – kimsungbum
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 1:19
  • @ChrisH Then, is it possible to interpret "reset" as the re-setting of timeline?
    – kimsungbum
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 2:24
  • This isn't my field but I'd avoid "timeline" in preference for "rhythm" or "cycle" as an implication of regular repetition is desirable. "Reset", while it often means "set to an initial state" can just mean "set again".
    – Chris H
    Commented Aug 15, 2015 at 8:21

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