ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

Social jet lag -- a syndrome related to the mismatch between the body's internal clock and the realities of our daily schedules -- has been tied to obesity and other health problems. Now, researchers have found a clever way to measure social jet lag in people all over the country: by analyzing patterns of activity on the social media platform Twitter.

Researchers have shown that so-called 'brown fat' interacts with the gut hormone secretin in mice to relay nutritional signals about fullness to the brain during a meal. The study bolsters our understanding of a long-suspected role of brown adipose tissue (BAT) -- a type of body fat known to generate heat when an animal is cold -- in the control of food intake.

What if we could observe genes firing off signals to cause some behaviors? We're getting closer. Researchers were able to directly match gene regulation with ritual mating behavior in fish. Their research field may also give some insight into autism spectrum disorder.