Dust to Death

All we are is dust in the wind…  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Sandstorms are intensifying globally. Did you know dust clouds affect long-term health? Enter Hailu Zhu and team from the China Pulmonary Health Study. They enrolled nearly FORTY-SEVEN THOUSAND people across urban

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Your Brain’s Simple Medicine

Look on the “bright side” … It’s less demented… This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fifty-seven million people worldwide live with dementia. Scientists continue searching for ways to stave it off. There could be a surprisingly simple solution!  Enter Säde Stenlund and team at Harvard

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Kimchi-ing Out Gut Plastics

From side dish to superhero – kimchi just leveled up. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Tiny plastics are appearing inside us due to pollution. But fermented foods like kimchi might be able to help with beneficial gut bacteria. REALLY?! Enter the World Institute of

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Heated or Too Hot to Handle?

Hot temper, or hot temperature? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Climate change is intensifying. Extreme heat days are becoming more frequent.  Alongside temperatures, mental health diagnoses are also on the rise! How climate change affects mental health remains an important gap in research! Is

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Delicious but Dangerous

Do you ever feel guilty reaching for a basket of fries?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. French fries are America’s favorite sidekick! Crispy, salty, impossible to resist! Sadly, they soak up LOTS of oil.  Yash Shah and colleagues at the University of Illinois wanted

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What’s Crackin’, Kraken?

Release the Kraken!…’s proof of existence…. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The Kraken is a legendary giant squid that terrorized sailors at sea. Fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago suggest that it may actually have been more than a legend. Shin Ikegami and

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Disappearing Soil

Is soil just… dust in the wind? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Across the United States, human activity leaves soil exposed to erosion. How much are we losing? Enter Shahab Aldin Shojaeezadeh and team from the University of Kassel.  Researchers combined erosion models, climate data,

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X Marks the… Bacteria?

Are coral reefs teeming with invisible treasure?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… Yes! And what a bonanza: bacteria with special properties that we can use as tools! For example, some bacteria have anti-tumor properties. We just have to look for them. So Fabienne

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