Space DNA

Twinkle twinkle little star… “how I wonder what WE are???” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  Who hasn’t stared at the stars wondering where we came from… Did life originate in Earth’s ancient atmospheric soup… Or did it fall from outer space? Yasuhiro Oba and

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Mysterious Bones

Can you even imagine a time before … horses? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In the early two-thousands, archeologists in modern-day Syria found bones of a horse-like creature. The bones were over forty-five hundred years old! But horses weren’t introduced to the area for

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Friendly Neigh-bears

Howdy, neigh-bear! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and the story of three bears… The Indigenous First Nations of modern British Columbia hold strong connections to wildlife. One venerated animal? The grizzly bear, which has shared their homeland for millennia. Recently, grizzlies appeared in new

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Tracking by Burp

Love is in the air tonight … or is that giraffe DNA? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Imagine trying to study animals that are always in hiding! Animal ecologists can relate! Scientists can learn a lot about elusive sea creatures by analyzing their environmental

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Irr-elephant

Photo of group of elephants

Preventing cancer? Elephants may be up to the TUSK. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Every cell has a chance to develop cancer. So within a species, larger animals, who have more cells, have higher cancer risk. Larger humans have higher risk of cancer, and

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Grandma’s Hands

Sourdough bread

Do grandmas really have a “magic touch” for baking? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Aspen Reese from Harvard wanted to know: can grandma’s actual hands really make a difference? She and her team sent flour to eighteen bakers across North America and Europe. The

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Ancient DNA

Tuatara (kind of reptile)

Fans of Jurassic Park, listen up! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The tuatara is an ancient reptile with close ties to dinosaurs. It looks like a lizard, but has TEETH — and triple-digit birthdays! What makes this critter so special? Neil Gemmell and an

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DNA Autocorrect

Text message with an autocorrected word

  Autocorrect is great for our phones. But what about our DNA? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. DNA is made of building blocks called bases. These bases spell out the blueprints for our cells! Sometimes, mistakes are made, and the wrong base gets swapped

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Post-Ghost

Symbol of a family painted in yellow on the street asphalt

  BOO! Any ghosts in YOUR family tree? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ah, the family tree! Aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents…but what about the gaps in the tree? Wouldn’t you like to know a little more about your family from thousands of

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Gum Genealogy

What can chewing gum reveal about YOU? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Yuck, nothing worse than finding old gum on your shoe! Unless you’re an archaeologist… Hannes Schroeder at the University of Copenhagen thinks GUM is as good as gold! His team discovered chewed

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