Do crocodiles like the Crocodile Rock …or do they prefer classical? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When you get a concussion, doctors use an M-R-I to take pictures of your brain. Remember that big hollow tube that patients lie down inside of on Grey’s
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What makes an elephant pack its trunk. . . and leave? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Elephant societies are matriarchal. Mothers and grandmothers lead the way. Sadly, older females are often targeted for their tusks. This leaves their family orphaned! So what happens when
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Hey, ants – can’t we all just …get along? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Not all ants are after your picnic basket. Some species are humble fungus farmers. Others are parasitic freeloaders. These social creepers come over and eat the farmer ants’ crops with
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Obey your thirst! Your brain commands it! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Yuki Oka of the California Institute of Technology. He and collaborators have a thirst for knowledge. Literally! They’ve pinpointed two groups of cells in mouse brains that control thirst. Kind of
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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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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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Are horses just . . . overgrown dogs? Science suggests yes! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: The two species do seem to have something unusual in common: The ability to read people’s faces! So say animal researchers at the University of Sussex. These
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Don’t speak the language? Just keep smiling! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many gestures are universal. A warm smile is innately understood all around the world. A thumbs up, however? That’s learned and doesn’t translate across cultures. But where did all of these gestures
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Why did skunks evolve with such di-STINK-tion? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet biologists Tim Caro and Theodore Stankowich. Yes, really. They study how some carnivorous mammals protect themselves from getting eaten. For example: meerkats huddle in groups, while skunks squirt noxious sprays. Why
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Do prairie dogs do The Wave? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, Yup! Or rather, Yip! Prairie dogs, which are actually a type of rodent, live in towns of dozens of families. They share resources, watch each others’ backs – And, sometimes, do something
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