Fish’n’Robots

Two fish swimming in tank

  Beam me up… Nemo!?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Would Dory and Nemo really be friends? What if they’re swimming in different oceans? Studying social interactions among animals is hard, but doing it long-distance seems impossible! Maurizio Porfiri and colleagues at New York

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Fizzy and Fat

Two glasses of iced bubbly beverage

Your beverage of choice. Fizzy or flat? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We know that sugary sodas can pack on pounds. But we love our bubbly bevs! So we’re cutting back on soda, drinking more sparkling water, and staying hydrated! That’s a healthy lifestyle

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Mind Over Robot

Scheme showing a monkey activating controller with its hand and its brain decoding the movement

  Mind over matter! And robots? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Advanced prosthetics hook up a robotic limb directly to your brain. Though still rudimentary, researchers hope to restore natural movement, and even touch, to amputees. But can brains really adapt and control this

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Freezing Hot

Iced water stalactites

Sick of waiting for your ice cubes to freeze? Maybe the water is too cold! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Did you know that hot water FREEZES much faster than cold water? This paradox was first observed by Aristotle centuries ago. It became known

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Post-Ghost

Symbol of a family painted in yellow on the street asphalt

  BOO! Any ghosts in YOUR family tree? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ah, the family tree! Aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents…but what about the gaps in the tree? Wouldn’t you like to know a little more about your family from thousands of

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Allergy Prevention

Peanuts with shell

  “If you give a mouse a cookie…” leave out the peanuts! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. One in thirteen kids has a serious food allergy in the US. Allergic reactions can cause swelling in the throat, preventing a person from breathing. Epi-pens stop

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Baby Feels

A little boy smiling with an open mouth

  My grandma used to say: ’A chubby baby means a happy baby’. But is that true? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Louis Schmidt and colleagues from McMaster University in Canada. They recorded the incomes from families whose babies were born underweight. About

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Social Shark

A grey reef shark's head, dorsal fin, and pectoral fin with some blurred rocks in the background

  Social butterfly… or social SHARK? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The shark in “Jaws” was depicted as a lone, ferocious predator. But could sharks actually have FRIENDS? Yannis Papastamatiou, David Jacoby and colleagues dove into shark-infested waters to find out. They put radio

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Train Brain Change

Hands touching 3D printed brain

How well do you remember? Answer’s more complex than you think. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. How might memory training affect your brain? Helene Gudi-Minderman and colleagues from the University of Hamburg wondered. They gave fifty young adults, who were either sighted or blind,

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