How our body keeps time in the heat
2025-07-24
Press Release
Researchers led by Gen Kurosawa at the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) in Japan have used theoretical physics to discover how our biological clock maintains a consistent 24-hour cycle—even as temperatures change. They found that this stability is achieved through a subtle shift in the “shape” of gene activity rhythms at higher temperatures, a process known as waveform distortion. This process not only helps keep time steady but also influences how well our internal clock synchronizes with the day-night cycle. The study was published in PLOS Computational Biology on July 22.
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Reference
- Shingo Gibo, Teiji Kunihiro, Tetsuo Hatsuda, Gen Kurosawa, Waveform distortion for temperature compensation and synchronization in circadian rhythms: An approach based on the renormalization group method, PLOS Computational Biology (2025), doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013246