Do you really need a brain to learn? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down On Science saying, maybe not—If you’re a slime mold! Those are single-celled organisms with a remarkably cooperative attitude. Individual cells come together into large colonies that appear to behave like single organisms. These
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Cut yourself shaving? Forget the wad of toilet paper—apply Frankenstein solution! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: It’s actually called hemostat solution, initially developed by a team of scientists at MIT. It works by bathing injured tissue in a blend of peptides, small fragments
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New hope for the Three Blind Mice? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The Farmer’s Wife may yet be foiled thanks to researchers from Fudan University. For sighted people, light gets picked up by cells in our eyes. These cells have sheets of pigment that
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Like your chili extra hot? Here’s another thrill you might enjoy—a tarantula bite! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A study by David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, looked at venom from a West Indian tarantula. It’s shown to activate the same
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Bzzz bzzz, smack! You—literally—smell good enough to eat! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Those pesky mosquitoes! They do more than just bug us. They spread malaria! Yikes! Even more horrifying? Once you’re infected by a malarial mosquito, you attract more of them! Never fear,
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Got thinning hair? Now we know why! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. All types of mammals experience hair thinning as they age. Ugh. In both sexes, it’s thought to be caused by shrinking hair follicles. But stem-cell biologists in Japan weren’t content with shrinkage
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Look out! Pothole! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Potholes and cracks. Every commuter’s nightmare. If only the problem could fix itself! Enter Congrui Jin and her team at Binghamton and Rutgers universities. They filled in the cracks by hiring some self-motivated construction workers. Who?
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Did you know your nose has its own cycle? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A whopping eighty percent of us have a nasal cycle. Meaning that congestion alternates from one nostril to the other throughout the day. We just don’t usually notice because our
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Sorry Spider-man, but you’re no gecko! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Zoologists at the University of Cambridge wondered: Why can some animals with sticky feet scale walls while others can’t? They studied 225 climbing animals of various sizes. From mites and spiders to tree
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Are hugs the new chicken soup? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Think of your gut as a soup of friendly bacteria. Everybody’s recipe is custom made to work with our bodies properly. These good bacteria help digest food and fight disease. Scientists know that
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