A benefit concert for the ocean? Try a reef instrument! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Like thriving happy homes—think laughing kids, barking dogs—healthy coral reefs bustle with noise. Damaged reefs are much quieter. Light can help larval polyps settle and coral reefs grow. “What
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Don’t let the chubby cheeks fool you! Babies are stronger than you think! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. CD8 T-cells are the soldiers of your immune system, trained to attack enemy microbes and infected cells! But, how are these T cells different when you’re
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Those wild birds eat WHAT? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Alice Dunbar and team from the University of South Australia studied the role of foraging on wild birds’ gut health. Okay, we mean coprophagy: eatin’ poop. Ew. But wait! Synthesizing previous studies on birds’
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I see the light! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Treating disease can be like a shot in the dark. If only we could see better. How can we brighten things up? Enter, Lila Halpers and team at the University of California, Irvine. They looked
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Got… Insulin? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Over 10 percent of Americans have diabetes. With not enough insulin to regulate blood sugar, diabetics have to—ouch—inject it. If only we could just DRINK our insulin… wait… could we? Paulo Monzani and a team from the
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Jetlag… in your tummy?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. European vacation! Get ready for amazing food. But wait. No matter how much you eat, nothing hits the spot after you land. Why? It turns out that transatlantic flights mess up your sleep cycle AND
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Welcome to the memory storage department – graveyard shift! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Your sleep is divided into different stages, each helping store memories from the day. But how does your brain sort through WHICH memories to keep? Enter Hongyu Chang and team
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Guess what’s the next big VIRAL hit… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Traditional methods for tracking new viral strains are slow, leaving us scrambling to update vaccines. In fact, many viruses go undetected completely! Enter Noemie Lefrancq and colleagues from Cambridge University. They developed
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Your therapist doesn’t get you? Maybe try one named HAL… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dariya Ovsyannikova and team from the University of Toronto put ChatGPT in the psychoanalyst’s chair! Human study participants first read either a negative or positive emotional prompt. Then they
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Can bacteria make us smarter? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Our gut contains “good” bacteria called microbiota! They help break down our lunch into essential nutrients. The more bacteria in our microbiota, the healthier we are! But wait, there’s more! Premysl Bercik and team at
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