More Green Please!

Plant parents – this one’s for you! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. There’s something magical about hiking, gardening, and being around greenery. But say you’re not very… uh… active. Can you still get those bennies just by going outside?  Enter Marcia Jimenez and colleagues

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Deep Dolphin Doo Doo

Love what you’ve done with the place… but it STANKS! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Home improvements like roof tarring are smelly but necessary. Wait until it’s too hot to do it, and your home will be vulnerable. Our marine friends are in much

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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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Cantankerous Capybaras

Call pest control – we’ve got a Capybara problem!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Termites and rats are bad enough! What if you woke up to find giant brown guinea pigs roaming around your lawn?! Capybaras, native to South America, are the largest rodents

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Woodland Growth

Ahh, birds chirping, leaves rustling … brains GROWING? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A nice walk in the woods does wonders for a busy mind. But how does growing up near woods-y areas help DEVELOPING minds? Researcher Mikaël Maes at Imperial College London and

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Green Light Plant Flight

It’s a bird, it’s a plane . . . it’s a – scientist in a helicopter!? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Living beings, like plants, reflect light in unique spiral patterns into the environment. Non-living things — like buildings and bridges – not so

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Rainforest Resilience

Have you heard? 1,000 is the new 30!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Like giant sponges, rainforests absorb carbon dioxide from the air. This benefits the whole planet! But weather conditions, such as droughts, can reduce this carbon uptake.  In twenty-fifteen, a climate disruption

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Clean Bacteria

Melaleuca quinquenervia tree. Image by sandid from Pixabay

Hey! What’s on the breakfast buffet – for bacteria? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas — it warms the earth over eighty times more than carbon dioxide does! How do we reduce it? Luke Jeffrey at Southern Cross University

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Forest Farts

Image of dying wetland forest. NC Wetlands via Wikicommons under (CC BY 2.0

Peee-yooh! Are you blaming the dog – again? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When humans break wind they release greenhouse gases, which are bad for the climate. However, your “whodunnit?” might not compare to a dying wetland forest. As a forest dies, greenhouse gases

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