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SCIScienceDaily

Scientists may have misread a 2-billion-year-old clue about Earth

Scientists have found that a famous 2-billion-year-old chemical signature, once thought to record a massive global change in Earth’s carbon cycle, may instead have been produced by local magma, hydrocarbons, and methane-eating microbes. The discovery raises new questions about what was really happening as oxygen transformed the young planet.

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SCIScienceDaily

Zepbound and Mounjaro may turn on the body’s calorie-burning brown fat

Tirzepatide has become an important treatment for obesity and related conditions such as diabetes, but scientists are still working to understand exactly how it affects the body. A study in mice now suggests that the drug may improve metabolism directly by activating brown adipose tissue, a form of fat that specializes in using energy. According to the researchers, the findings provide new clues about how tirzepatide works and could help guide the development of broader treatments for obesity and other metabolic disorders.

SCIScienceDaily

REM sleep paradox: Dreaming may drain the brain’s energy even as fuel supply rises

Scientists discovered a surprising energy paradox in the brain during REM sleep, the stage most closely associated with dreaming. Blood supply to the brain begins increasing even before REM starts, but neurons’ immediately available energy, measured as ATP, then drops. The finding suggests that dreaming may require such intense internal processing that neurons consume energy faster than it can be replenished.