Is that special glow. . . T-B? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Tuberculosis causes around two million deaths a year. And it can be difficult to diagnose! The test for poorer, densely populated places is over one hundred years old—and it’s often WRONG! Carolyn
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Could the solution to global warming be a stone’s throw away? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Since the Industrial Revolution, burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide emissions substantially. C-O-two traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to the “greenhouse effect”. For years, scientists have
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Can you eat yourself to death? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A stick of butter can make ANYTHING taste good. But oops… Calories galore! They can add to our waistline. But could excess calories also speed up our metabolism, or even how fast we
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What’s a whale’s favorite music jam? Apparently: the bluuuuueees! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Forget Coachella – there’s a BIGGER music festival happening… deep in the North Atlantic ocean! The headliners? Breeding bowhead whales! All winter long, these whales flirt by singing songs to
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Was the first Grecian formula actually Roman? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When it came to coloring hair, Ancient Rome was startlingly advanced. Its recipe for hair dye combines lead sulphide and lime. These create nanocrystals, which grow not just inside hair strands but
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Look, ma! No hands! I mean wings! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and on the tool-using habits of New Caledonian crows. Sure, various animals use tools, but we’re the only ones with toolboxes. So other species have to find creative ways of keeping their
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Is your margarita. . . endangered? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Insects like bees and butterflies are known for their pollinating prowess. When they feed on the sweet nectar from flowers, pollen rubs off on their legs. This pollen transfers to other flowers so
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March for women! March for science! March for…the amygdala? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. There are many opportunities today to protest the status quo. But what inspires us to march? Hannah Nam at Stony Brook University researches the amygdala. That’s the almond-shaped cluster of
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Are humans really at the top of the food chain? This is Sandra Tsing Loh, with the Loh Down on Science. Compared to our great ape cousins, we humans are way ahead in the evolutionary race. We’ve got bigger brains. We also reproduce faster than expected for our body size.
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Munch, munch, munch ouch! Not another cavity! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Cavities are a pain. To slow their formation, we add fluoride to toothpaste. But fluoride doesn’t help with cavities once they form. What if something else could? Researchers at the University of
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