Kitty Antidote
What goes meow AND achoo?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying allergic cat owners!
We LOVE our cuddly feline friends. Yes we do! But what if your HUMAN lover is allergic? Is there a better solution than buying Benadryl by the case?
Ebenezer Satyaraj and his team at Nestle Purina looked into it and…it’s all about the spit! One pesky protein in cat saliva is usually the culprit in most allergic reactions. Cats spread the protein around when they groom themselves.
The researchers wanted to make cats hypo-allergenic – from the INSIDE out! They gave cats food with an antibody to reduce the allergy causing protein. Each week, researchers measured the sneeze potential of the cats’ fur.
Results? Purr-fect! The allergen was reduced by almost half by the tenth week! And the most allergenic cats saw the biggest improvement.
Hello, Kitty! Now, cats and their people can coexist peacefully. Allergies won’t separate people in love!
Cleaning the catbox, though? Still a point of contention. No, it’s YOUR turn!!
Reference: Satyaraj, E., Gardner, C., Filipi, I., Cramer, K., & Sherrill, S. (2019). Reduction of active Fel d1 from cats using an antiFel d1 egg IgY antibody. Immunity, inflammation and disease, 7(2), 68–73. https://doi.org/10.1002/iid3.244
Slimy Solutions
What’s slimy, slippery, and soon to be in your medicine cabinet?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
The answer? Sea snails, of course! Specifically, the Australian white rock sea snail. These escargot secrete a slime that has chemicals also found in prescription drugs. They’re called indoles.
Some snails secrete six-bromoisatin, or six-BR, an indole known to have anti-cancer properties. But how does it work?
Enter David Rudd from Southern Cross University and a team of researchers from Australia. They isolated these indoles from sea snail slime. The team treated mice with colorectal cancer with six-BR for fourteen weeks.
Results? They found that six-B-R traveled to the colon to prevent tumor progression! While it didn’t CURE the cancer, it stopped it from getting worse! More importantly, six-BR did not cause the mice any further bodily damage!
Colorectal cancer is the THIRD highest cause of cancer related deaths in the US! Rudd and his team hope to develop six-BR into a drug for people, to prevent more casualties from the disease.
Let’s hope this research doesn’t move at a SNAIL’S pace! …sorry!
Reference: Rudd, D. A., Benkendorff, K., Chahal, C., Guinan, T., Gustafsson, O. J. R., Esmaeelian, B., Krysinska, H., Pogson, L., Voelcker, N. H., & Abbott, C. A. (2019). Mapping insoluble indole metabolites in the gastrointestinal environment of a murine colorectal cancer model using desorption/ionisation on porous silicon imaging. Scientific reports, 9(1), 12342. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48533-2
Cocoa Relaxer
Follow the CHOCOLATE brick road?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
You’re stressed. Your HEART is a traffic jam. Artery flow is at a crawl. Is there a shortcut outta this gridlock? Or at least a superfood?
HMM…Cocoa contains heart healthy molecules called flavanols! YUM.
To test flavanols against stress, Rosalind Baynham and team at University of Birmingham recruited thirty volunteers. First, they measured their forearm blood flow and artery width. Next, participants drank either high-flavanol or low-flavanol cocoa.
Then… LIGHTNING ROUND! Non-stop mental math for eight minutes! PHEEEUW!
Blood flow and arteries are measured again.
Results? High-flavanol cocoa IMPROVED blood flow during stress! Subjects’ arteries widened – like adding lanes to a freeway.
Now we’re off to the races! With high-flavanol… synthetic… cardiac stabilizing… CHOCOLATE! From the gas station.
Reference: Baynham, R., Veldhuijzen Van Zanten, J. J., Johns, P. W., Pham, Q. S., & Rendeiro, C. (2021). Cocoa Flavanols Improve Vascular Responses to Acute Mental Stress in Young Healthy Adults. Nutrients, 13(4), 1103. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041103
Life on Mars
E.T., is that you – or just microbes on Mars?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
NASA has found the best evidence for life on Mars so far.
The team, led by Joel Hurowitz, analyzed rock samples collected by the Perseverance rover. In the rocks, they found iron compounds that indicate microbial life.
These compounds can also be formed without life, in very hot or acidic conditions. However, that doesn’t apply to these samples, suggesting perhaps the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Are we alone in the universe? Has life begun outside of Earth? We’re closer than ever to answering these questions.
Unfortunately, if these microbes did try to “phone home”, they wouldn’t have great reception.
Reference: Hurowitz, J.A., Tice, M.M., Allwood, A.C. et al. Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars. Nature 645, 332–340 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0
Storm of Spiders
It’s Stormy Monday….for spiders?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Meet Jonathan Pruitt and team from UC Santa Barbara. They wondered if—similar to how humans rush to grocery store to hoard toilet paper—tropical cyclones make spider colonies more aggressive.
They put a piece of paper in the spider’s web and made it vibrate with a super advanced scientific tool—an electric toothbrush! They counted how many angry spiders attacked the bait, before and after a storm.
And? AFTER a cyclone, the spiders were WAY more aggressive!! More spiders went after the bait post-storm, compared to spiders with clear skies. ANGER was good. Aggressive colonies had more spiders survive into winter!
No word on if this could be helped with tiny pink umbrellas. With eight handles.
Reference: Little, A. G., Fisher, D. N., Schoener, T. W., & Pruitt, J. N. (2019). Population differences in aggression are shaped by tropical cyclone-induced selection. Nature ecology & evolution, 3(9), 1294–1297. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0951-x
Bird-ger Kings
Human trash is a birds’ feast! Or a last supper?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Meet Andrea Townsend and colleagues from Hamilton College and UC Davis. They tested for differences in cholesterol levels, general health, and survival rates, between urban and rural baby crows. Then they investigated the impact of people food on RURAL nestlings. Er, they gave them McDonald’s cheeseburgers.
Turns out? City crows have higher cholesterol than their country cousins! AND the Big Mac Attack is real—it raised the cholesterol in rural birds, to near city levels.
Before your feathers get ruffled, scientists don’t know if this is a bad thing. Some baby crows are healthier with higher cholesterol.
Either way, seems like fodder for a Hitchcock film…or a disturbingly cute Kids Meal toy! From Bird-ger King.
Reference: Townsend, A. K., Staab, H. A., & Barker, C. M. (2019). Urbanization and elevated cholesterol in American Crows. The Condor, 121(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/condor/duz040