Comeback Canopy

Conservation is a big deal –  who should drive this project? Nature? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Let’s look at NATURAL rainforest recovery, with Timo Metz and team at Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.  They surveyed sixty-two plots in Ecuador’s Chocó rainforest. These

Continue reading

Methane to Merlot

Can we turn methane into merlot? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… Scary question, I know. How did we get here?  Cow burps and landfills trap us with a bad vintage of greenhouse gases. Can the damage be undone? Enter Ruchira Mitra and colleagues

Continue reading

Shroom Brain Electricians

Got fungus on the brain? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Your brain works because different regions constantly send messages to each other. It doesn’t work as well when we’re depressed. But Psilocybin from certain mushrooms, may help by changing which brain pathways grow stronger.

Continue reading

Thymus Bootcamp

Was the cure for cancer inside us all along? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… In a way, yes.  A global research team from Harvard Medical School, Dana Farber, and Maastricht University looked at the thymus. This organ trains immune cells. They used algorithms

Continue reading

Slimy Architects

Oysters need cloisters! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We’ve demolished MOST natural oyster reefs. To rebuild them, we usually just dump flat rocks underwater. Sure, rocks offer a place to attach, but without hiding spots, baby oysters are easy prey! What’s missing? Enter Melanie

Continue reading

Spare Charge

Can the “little blue pill” get our cells up and running again? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science… And we’re talking about Mitochondria, the tiny structures that power our cells. In the nightmarish Leigh syndrome, broken mitochondria cause weakness, loss of movement, and dangerous metabolic

Continue reading

Thymus Encore

Most organs are a one-hit wonder. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, right???  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Take the thymus. It trains infection-fighting T cells, but as we age, it shrinks, weakening our immune system. Could the thymus make a comeback? Enter Anna Czarkwiani

Continue reading

Cosmic Jackets

That baby black hole is built like a linebacker! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. For years, astronomers have spotted mysterious “little red dots” in the sky. They were believed to be black holes that were impossibly massive for their age.  Not so, according to

Continue reading

Pop-Up Patrol

All quiet on the … digestion front?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Your immune system usually “trains” soldier cells at lymph nodes — before shipping them out. But what if the battle is too far away? Enter John Gridley and Arash Grakoui from Emory

Continue reading

Sight for Sore Eyes

Can we fix dead pixels… in our eyes?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. To see, our eyes need light to trigger brain signals. For people with a disease called macular degeneration, that connection is broken, creating a permanent blind spot! Enter Frank Holz and

Continue reading