Friendly Felines

Two cats, one with blue eyes and other with green eyes, looking at the camera

If you love cats, blink once! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Unless your kitty is Garfield, you don’t really know what it’s thinking. Cats can’t speak! So, how CAN we communicate with our feline friends? Tasmin Humphrey at the University of Sussex says: it’s

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Robo Smarts

White robot near wall looking at the camera

Is the future of teaching. . . robots? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Teachers could sure use a hand in the classroom! Researchers think robots could help students learn, collaborate, and express themselves. But how do students feel about robo-teachers? Camino Fernández-Llamas and his

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Flier Friendly

Wind farm on a green mountain terrain

Frequent fliers? More like frequent colliders! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Here you are, a bird in flight, minding your own business. Suddenly – SQUAWK! OH NO! A WIND FARM! Fly back!!! Wind energy might help save the planet, but it’s deadly to birds.

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Tummy Time

Who’s really in charge… you, or your tummy?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. You’re in the library and hunger STRIKES. Forget the salad! You’re craving pizza. Why do we prefer such rich, savory foods?  Mengtong Li and team from Howard Hughes Medical Institute wondered. 

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Nanodiamonds in the Rough

It’s raining cats, dogs, and… NANODIAMONDS?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Icy planets like Neptune and Uranus have some CRAZY weather conditions. We’re talking three hundred fifty degrees below zero AND rainstorms. But not just any rainstorms… DIAMOND storms! How could we do that

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Bright Firework Future

Could burning fireworks cause cancer?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Every color of firework comes from a different chemical. Some have toxic byproducts. BUT! Finding safe replacement colors is hard. Some just don’t flash or sparkle right!  Is the idea of good nontoxic fireworks

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Rat Race

Could your next driving instructor be … Stuart Little? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Wild rats are smarter than scientists thought. One wild rat escaped and eluded seasoned field researchers for over four months! So are lab rats naturally dumber than their liberated friends?

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Lone Phone

All by myself….! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Being a teenager has always been challenging! My flashbacks to middle school are scary enough! But apparently now it’s becoming even harder. Many teens today report feeling lonelier than previous generations did!  But WHY? Jean Twengea

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Sleigh Bells and Seaweed

Christmas came and went – and so did the cookies you left for Santa! But what do reindeer eat offseason? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Climate change in the far north freezes Rudolph’s favorite plants. It also melts sea-ice bridges, preventing reindeer from foraging

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Snowproof Genes

Cold weather — it’s SNOW joke! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s freezing out, and you’re MISERABLE! Forget the down parka – what if your GENES could warm you ?  Enter Victoria Wyckelsma from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and team. They study a

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