Picture yourself at the beach, waves crashing, salty air on your face. What’s that smell? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. That fresh ocean breeze might not be as clean as you think. Enter Matthew Pendergraft and team from University of California San Diego. They
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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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Tired of leftovers? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Current food waste disposal methods can lead to greenhouse gases and air pollution. Beenish Saba and team at Ohio State University found a disgusting solution. Bacteria CAN turn food into USEFUL lab chemicals like acetate, butanol,
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Concrete powered homes?! Sounds crazy! Or does it? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Renewable energy demand keeps growing. The challenge is finding cheap and abundant materials. Qi Luo and team at Aarhus University in Denmark have developed cement infused with energy-producing bacteria. The bacteria
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Could bacteria be… a bright spot? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ecosystems need the sun for power, and so do we. So what do we do when night falls? Lights out, Shunling Li and team from Kunming University of Science and Technology. They discovered
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Hey man, can I bum a ride… to Mars?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Spacecraft cleanrooms use rigorous procedures to ensure no microbial guests stow away on missions. However, some bacteria are hard to detect, since they don’t form spores. Madhan Tirumalai and team
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Welcome sweater weather! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In Southern California, you can relax on the beach and hike in the mountains on the same day. You may need a windbreaker, hoodie, and jacket, though. What if you didn’t need all that wardrobe to
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There’s gold in them there… MICROBES?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Over time, germs become resistant to our antibiotic hand sanitizers. Yuck! Can we stop them by… panning for ancient organisms?! Enter Marcelo Torres and team at the University of Pennsylvania. They studied archaea
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Join the enzyme evolution revolution… today! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Enzymes are cellular machines that perform a wide variety of critical tasks for human health. What if we crank them up? Researchers have tried a technique called ‘continuous evolution’ that uses millions of
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Don’t open Pandoraea’s box! Who knows what you’ll unleash! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Pandoraea is an awful bacteria that infects mucus in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. But could we use it for good? Here’s how that nasty stuff works. Meet Elena
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