The timeless beauty of classical art! The Greeks, the Romans….the WASPS??!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Wasps…the scourge of picnics everywhere. It’s never a good day when you spot a wasp nest. Or is it? For Helen Green at the University of Melbourne it’s a
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Ant-nihilate Traffic
What’s the ants-er to road-rage? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, perchance – it’s ANTS! Ugh, traffic. Right? We’re all just trying to get from point A to point B! What’s the hold-up? Audrey Dussutour at Toulouse University in France thinks ants are the
Continue readingHeart on My Sleeve
Talk about ham radio! Literally ham. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Medical devices like pacemakers give doctors vital information about our health! Unfortunately, most pacemakers only last around five years. How can medical devices last longer? John Ho at the National University of Singapore
Continue readingRat Race
Could your next driving instructor be…Stuart Little? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Wild rats are smarter than scientists thought. One wild rat escaped and eluded seasoned field researchers for over four months! So are lab rats naturally dumber than their liberated friends? Or could
Continue readingUnfolding Mysteries
Write like an Egyptian… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. How did ancient Egyptians write their grocery lists? On papyrus! Unfortunately, these valuable texts are often discovered folded up. How can archaeologists unwrap their secrets without completely destroying the fragile scroll? Ask Egyptologist Verena Lepper
Continue readingWater From Wood
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, I’m parched! Sailors everywhere wish ocean water was drinkable. What if there was a cheap way to REMOVE the salt? Professor Liangbing Hu from the University of Maryland might
Continue readingGlowing Sharks
Lions and tigers and glowing sharks, oh my? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: We’re gonna need a bigger boat! Lots of ocean-dwelling animals glow. Biofluorescence allows a marine animal–say, a shark–to take in light and convert it to a different color. What color?
Continue readingRobo-Situps
Happy hour for robots? Hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Robots with artificial muscles that are flexible, durable, and responsive would be a dream! Unfortunately, robotic joints are too stiff and slow for human-like movement – yet! Shengqian Ma from
Continue readingAging Bat-ifully
Hey, influencers – have you heard about BEAUTY TIPS from BATS? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. For most mammals, the smaller they are, the shorter their lifespan. But not bats! If humans played by bat rules, we’d live past a hundred and fifty! What
Continue readingThree High Mice
If you give a mouse LSD…THEN what? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Hallucinations are tricky to study. So it’s hard to develop effective treatments for disorders like schizophrenia. Giving people LSD to make them hallucinate? Probably a bad idea. Fortunately, it’s much easier, well,
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