Be still, my beating heart! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. Healthy human heart rates range from about sixty to one hundred beats per minute. Too slow or too fast – we feel lightheaded and weak. How about blue whales? They are the largest animals,
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Fearless Gut
Should I follow my brain or my heart? How about my gut?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. Our guts are filled with microbiomes made of viruses, bacteria, and fungi. These microorganisms have a HUGE impact on our health. Even small changes affect immunity and
Continue readingSpider Stitches
Did I just walk into a spider web? Eeew! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. Having surgery? That means…stitches!. And getting stitches is about as fun as… well, getting stitches. Any way we can avoid those needles? Hyunwoo Yuk and Claudia Varela from MIT took
Continue readingTongue-Tied T Rex
DINO got your tongue? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dinosaurs are making a comeback… on screen that is! Movies like Jurassic Park had to imagine what these fierce creatures looked like. But have you ever wondered if they had it wrong? Enter an international
Continue readingAnt-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 readingSalamander Limbs
Oh my aching joints! If only knees grew on trees! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When a salamander gets grabbed by the tail – off it comes. He just grows a new one! Amphibians that can grow back limbs have special proteins known as
Continue readingVeggie Tales
It’s flu season… for PLANTS?!? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Like us, plants catch viruses. Their home remedy? Plants use molecular scissors to break viruses into tiny pieces. These bits of genetic material are replicated, creating small interfering RNA’s — or siRNA’s. These act
Continue readingStopwatch or Tattoo
Tick-tock – TIME to get a tattoo? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Out for a run? You need a good stopwatch! But ouch…that chafing wristband! What about a glowing stopwatch display, right on your hand? Scientists have already developed these, but they need a
Continue readingBlind Date
Ah, love – is it REALLY blind? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Male bees — you’ve got it rough. You’re born, you mate with a queen, and then you die. But, hundreds of other would-bee suitors are trying to do the same thing! How
Continue readingFeel the Burn
Can you eat more Ghost Peppers than a mole-rat? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The highveld mole-rat has a superpower. It can roll around in a colony of stinging ants without breaking a sweat! The ants sting with a chemical called AITC, the same
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