Loh Down Staff – Page 7 – The Loh Down On Science

Slip n’ Slide

November 16, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Slipping on a banana peel – Cartoon pratfall, or fascinating biology? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. What makes banana peels so slippery? That’s what Kiyoshi Mabuchi colleagues at Japan’s Kitasato University wondered. So they set up a scientific slip n’ slide! They placed a

Moon Walk

November 9, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Moon walking: Not as easy as it looks! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. For astronauts, the moon’s weaker gravity can be disorienting. How do we know? Astronauts stumble! NASA has the blooper reels to prove it. That’s because gravity doesn’t just anchor us. It

Martian Gardens

November 2, 2018 Loh Down Staff

We’ve all heard of “farm to table”—But what if your table is on Mars? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s hard to get fresh veggies in space. But future colonists will need them for long-term survival. Enter researchers from Wageningen University in The Netherlands.

Scaredy-Crows

October 31, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Animal grouping phrases: A parliament of owls! A murmuration of starlings! A murder of crows?!? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. University of Washington researchers Kaili Swift and John Marzluff observed, and wondered: Why do crows gather around their dead? To find out, first, the

Bat Talk

October 30, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Overheard in the bat cave – conversation? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. That’s what Genevieve Wright at the University of Maryland wanted to know. In previous studies, Wright and colleagues found that brown bats seem to make six different types of social calls. Their

Nap Time

October 24, 2018 Loh Down Staff

In after-lunch meetings, when people drone on and you doze off, don’t blame bad Powerpoints. Blame food coma! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and on food coma—the unbearable sleepiness that sets in about a half an hour after you’ve finished a big meal. According

Beer for Health

October 19, 2018 Loh Down Staff

You know what our diets need more of? Beer! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Sure, barbecuing is fun, but it’s not really good for us. Boo! See, grilling produces nasty compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs for short. They are also found in car

Cotton Cuisine

October 17, 2018 Loh Down Staff

How’d you like to wear your shirt —and eat it, too? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When fibers are plucked from a cotton plant, what’s left behind is pile of seeds practically bursting with protein. Unfortunately they’re also bursting with a

Low-Emission Camels

October 12, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Do you know your animal farts? Pop quiz. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Who makes more flatus than your lovable but aging dog? Ruminating animals, like cows and sheep, that’s who. They chew their cuds at one end, and release methane gas from the

Smog Breath

October 11, 2018 Loh Down Staff

Does this smog make me look fat? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and a weight-gain study we hope doesn’t make you hyperventilate! Who’s asking it? Environmental health scientists at Ohio State University. They wanted to examine how exposure to air pollution early in life