“Just keep swimming…just keep swimming….” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Imagine having to constantly walk in order to breathe. Sounds exhausting — but that’s a shark’s reality! Sharks MUST keep swimming to get oxygen over their gills. Do they EVER get a break? Yannis
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Vanilla Warfare
Reduce, reuse, recycle…VANILLA? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Plastic wrapping, cups, utensils, oh my! Plastic production is contributing to a global waste crisis! One type of plastic in particular, P.E.T, can be recycled — but it doesn’t break down easily. Is there a sweet
Continue readingScent-sational Molecules
Hmmm. . . What’s that smell? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scent is not as straightforward as you might think. Scientists have long tried to crack the code of how scent molecules interact with our noses. How does it work? Enter
Continue readingMini Lungs
Take a deep breath… or a miniature one! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientists want to learn more about how viruses like Covid-19 are able to infiltrate our lungs. However, research using real patients can be challenging, since each patient’s lungs can
Continue readingLeaf No Trace
Do our plant babies have FEELINGS too? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… Our sense of touch is a double edged sword. A pat on the head? Nice. A paper cut? Yowch. Either way, our skin sends a calcium nerve signal to
Continue readingToasting to Taurine
Is there a recipe for longer life? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, let’s look at that one in reverse. Take the amino acid Taurine. Taurine deficiency in youth leads to impairments akin to age-associated disorders like high blood pressure. Over time,
Continue readingHot Hits
Home runs are really HEATING UP… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Baseball has seen increasing home runs over the past forty years. Could the secret sauce behind them be climate change ? Christopher Callahan and team from Dartmouth College investigated.
Continue readingTiny Treatments
Creepy crawlies… to the rescue?? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… LEECHES! Dark, slimy, and definitely gross. BUT, they’ve had their uses in medicine for hundreds of years. Are there any other types of worm that could help us? Researchers from
Continue readingLife’s Soupy Start
Primordial soup? Yum! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientists propose that life on earth started as a warm primordial puddle of life-sustaining compounds. But HOW? Zhong Yin and team from ETH Zurich and the University of Geneva wanted to find out.
Continue readingCool-House Rock
It’s a bird… it’s a plane… It’s Oumuamua!!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In 2017, astronomers detected the first interstellar object passing through our solar system. Oumuamua! They couldn’t tell if it was an asteroid or comet, but either way, it sped
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