Medical research

Can road salt and other pollutants disrupt our circadian rhythms?

Every winter, local governments across the United States apply millions of tons of road salt to keep streets navigable during snow and ice storms. Runoff from melting snow carries road salt into streams and lakes, and causes ...

Medical research

Cancer overrides the circadian clock to survive

Tumor cells use the unfolded protein response to alter circadian rhythm, which contributes to more tumor growth, Hollings Cancer Center researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) find. A key part of the ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Twitter can reveal our shared mood

In the largest study of its kind, researchers from the University of Bristol have analysed mood indicators in text from 800 million anonymous messages posted on Twitter. These tweets were found to reflect strong patterns ...

Medical research

Time matters: Does our biological clock keep cancer at bay?

Our body has an internal biological or "circadian" clock, which cycles daily and is synchronized with solar time. New research done in mice suggests that it can help suppress cancer. The study, publishing 7 December in the ...

Medical research

Our muscles measure the time of day

Biological clocks throughout the body trigger the release of the hormone melatonin during sleep, induce the secretion of digestive enzymes at lunchtime or keep us awake at the busiest moments of the day. A "master clock" ...

Neuroscience

The neural relationship between light and sleep

Humans are diurnal animals, meaning that we usually sleep at night and are awake during the day, due at least in part to light or the lack thereof. Light is known to affect sleep indirectly by entraining—modifying the length ...

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