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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Stop and smell the – *GAG* This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Some varieties of wild ginger smell like… wild ginger. Some… smell like death! What gives? Dr. Yudai Okuyama and team at the University of Tokyo discovered the source of the stank. In normal
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Plants versus bacteria. Who will win? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Bacteria are sneaky. Sure plants can use enzymes – like BGAL1 – to uncover them. But some bacteria can block those enzymes and stay hidden using a mystery molecule. Scientists knew that this
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Is the key to better sleep… Enzyme fight club?!? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In tonight’s main event: Kinase vs Phosphatase! Kinases add specific molecules to other proteins, while phosphatases undo the work of the kinases. The activity balance of these proteins can determine
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“You’re not leaving the table until you finish your… plastic?!” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A really inconvenient truth? Sort those colored bins as we like, only a small percentage of plastics can actually be recycled. Most end up in landfills, or burned, causing
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Spit – the magic potion! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, try getting a gorilla to spit in a cup – for science! Proteins in your saliva can reveal everything from your favorite foods to diseases that you’ve encountered. So, how do
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What’s the BUZZZZ on BEEZ? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Honey bee populations have majorly declined in recent years. It’s called colony collapse disorder, and its cause has eluded beekeepers and scientists. Until now! Nancy Moran and researchers at University of Texas, Austin found
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Oh look! A piece of yummy cheese! But…could this be a trap? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Everyone wants to lose weight, scientists just as much as anyone else! And some are looking for answers by studying… mice! At the University of Copenhagen, Karen
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Have you ever met a shark who’s a….vegetarian? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Okay, so maybe not a STRICT vegetarian. But there IS a shark who eats more seagrass than fish! It’s the bonnethead shark—a small relative of hammerheads. Samantha Leigh and her colleagues
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What do cockroaches and plastics have in common? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying…they both can last for THOUSANDS of years! Its estimated that there are more than five TRILLION plastic bits floating in our oceans. That’s more than the number of stars found
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