All About Algae

Pee-yew! Is that the smell of…. greenhouse… GAS?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fertilizer’s stink comes from nitrogen. When plants can’t get enough of this nutrient from the air, we help them. But Tyler Coale and team from the University of California, Santa Cruz

Continue reading

Itchy Skin

Got an itch you can’t scratch? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We all get itchy, but if you’ve got a skin condition, that’s the worst. The bacteria S. aureus is especially irritating. It produces an enzyme called V8 which sparks the pain. Is there

Continue reading

Toilet Treatment

Who wants to. . . SCRUB SOME DIRTY TOILETS!?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Thank heavens for Nusret Celik from Erciyes University in Turkey and team. They created a clear, silicone-based coating that makes toilets slippery! To test it, they slicked it onto half

Continue reading

Piercing Viruses

POP goes the virus! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Just think about all the germs we touch everyday. Eek! Who knows how many contaminated surfaces we bump into. It’s impossible to keep them clean. Or is it? What if we could kill viruses and

Continue reading

Swarming Storage

Remember… BACTERIA never forget! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Certain bacteria can move together in coordinated groups, or swarms. Sometimes, if they swarm once, they’re faster at swarming the next time. As if they REMEMBER! But, HOW do they remember…without a brain? Souvik Bhattacharyyaswa

Continue reading

Nifty Nanoscopic Needles

The future of medicine is TINY! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Modern medicines are powerful, but getting them where they’re needed most can be a pain. What if you had a needle small enough to inject into individual cells? Enter Joseph Kreitz and team

Continue reading

Tick-tock: times up!

UGH ticks really…TICK me off! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. While universally hated for their blood sucking and disease spreading, ticks aren’t loners. They carry bacteria critical for their growth, reproduction, and disease transmission! What if we could break up this dynamic duo? Enter

Continue reading

Bio Friendly Bacteria

What do cheese, beer and sauerkraut have in common? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science – saying…. FERMENTATION – a process that uses bacteria to make a picnic! But what ELSE can it do? From nail salons to ball pits, acetone and isopropanol are all

Continue reading

Pimple Power

Pimples – they pack a PUNCH!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying “put up yer dukes!”.  Our skin is home to more than one TRILLION microorganisms, battling for domination!  So Anyo Tsuro and colleagues from Osaka City University staged a Battle of the Bacteria!

Continue reading

Golden Ticket

There’s gold in them there … bacteria? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When gold and copper are surrounded by certain other chemicals, they’re toxic to the environment. This can hurt the soil, and, in turn, the plants and animals living there. But Nature has

Continue reading