Ugh, still dating that NEANDERTHAL? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fifty thousand years ago, that was normal! Huh?! Alexander Platt and team at the University of Pennsylvania investigated. These encounters left clues in DNA. Remember: Mothers always pass X chromosomes, while fathers pass X
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For my next trick, I will make a STAR… DISAPPEAR?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. At the end of their lives, massive stars typically EXPLODE before forming black holes. BUT is that always the case? Enter Kishalay De [KEE-shih-lee DAY] and team at M-I-T.
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On Wednesdays, we wear… diapers? Puh, Mean Girls. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A healthy gut contains a diverse ecosystem of bacteria! But – where do we get it from? Enter Liviana Ricci and team at the University of Trento, Italy. They studied a
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What’s to eat at… Pleistocene Park? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. RNA is DNA’s mailman. It delivers genetic info around the cell. BUT… it’s very fragile! This makes reading ancient RNA very difficult. Until now! Enter Emilio Mármol-Sánchez and team at Sweden’s Centre for Palaeogenetics.
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Is your dog…a bit SNOOPY? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Gifted Word Learner DOGS learn objects’ names like no other! But, can they eavesdrop? Enter Shany Dror [SHAH-nee Duh-OHR] and team at the Eötvös Loránd [URT-vosh LOR-ahnd] University in Hungary. In their study, dogs
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Who made the dog’s snout? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dogs and wolves are distant cousins. But when did they go their own ways? Allowen Evin and Carly Ameen at the University of Exeter sniffed out the answer. They measured the sizes and shapes
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Is the cure for cancer in… WHALES?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Big animals need TONS of cell divisions to grow. That means more chances for DNA oopsies – AKA CANCER. But bowhead whales – despite their size – AREN’T more prone to cancer!!
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Is artificial intelligence just a big ol’ boys club? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. AI learns from the internet – it soaks up EVERYTHING! The good, the bad…and the biases? Douglas Guilbeault and colleagues at Stanford studied how prejudice affects chatbots. The researchers analyzed
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It’s a wonderful life… span? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Around the world, women outlive men. But… is that just a human thing? Enter Johanna Staerk and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute. They studied the lifespans of over FIVE HUNDRED mammals and SIX
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Tissue regeneration isn’t out of earshot! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Rabbits regenerate ear tissue like no other. What’s their evolutionary secret? Ask Weifeng Lin and team at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing. They found a gene called Aldehyde1A2 that was active
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