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Recent research reveals that the immune system interacts with the body’s internal clock, influencing both fat storage and temperature regulation.

The discovery hints at why shift workers and others with irregular work, eating, or sleep patterns driven by the demands of modern life fall out of metabolic sync, and may hold potential for developing therapies to address obesity and prevent wasting.

The key finding—that an immune molecule within adipose (fat) tissue, known as interleukin-17A (IL-17A), plays a regulatory role in fat storage—holds significant therapeutic potential for addressing obesity, preventing wasting, and mitigating other metabolic disorders...

Data is power. According to Dinesh Bharadia, an associate professor at UC San Diego in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the Qualcomm Institute (QI), “data will be the next decade’s ‘silicon.'”

The rapid growth of the Internet of Things means that data is more readily available and easily accessible than ever. Sensors, “smart” devices and software connect our world to the cloud, gathering information and enabling new types of data sharing and analysis. However, most of these tools are battery-powered and have difficulty sensing changes in real time.

Now, the tide is turning.

New research presented and published in t...

Gamma radiation converts methane into glycine and other complex molecules. Gamma radiation can convert methane into a wide variety of products at room temperature, including hydrocarbons, oxygen-containing molecules, and amino acids, reports a research team in the journal Angewandte Chemie. This type of reaction probably plays an important role in the formation of complex organic molecules in the universe — and possibly in the origin of life. They also open up new strategies for the industrial conversion of methane into high value-added products under mild conditions.

With these research results, the team led by Weixin Huang at the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei) has contributed...

Advance paves the way for broad applications in medicine and biotech. Researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy have developed synthetic genes that function like the genes in living cells.

The artificial genes can build intracellular structures through a cascading sequence that builds self-assembling structures piece by piece. The approach is similar to building furniture with modular units, much like those found at IKEA. Using the same parts, one can build many different things and it’s easy to take the set apart and reconstruct the parts for something else...