Lichenate Me!

Can E.T. survive UV?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Other planets are uninhabitable because stars emit intense ultraviolet radiation. This UV radiation is toxic to living organisms, or is it…? Enter Tejinder Singh and team from the Desert Research Institute. They wanted to know

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Shadow Showdown

No flash photography, and please, don’t feed the mold. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Imagine priceless puppets slowly degrading over the years. Museum air TEEMS with sneaky microbes. How can we protect our historical artifacts? Enter Yuanyuan Wang and team from Beijing’s University of

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Moldy but a Goodie?

No dessert until you’ve finished your…MOLD? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Plant-based and vegetarian meals are great choices because of their health and environmental benefits. But how can we make meat alternatives taste like the REAL thing? There’s a fungus among us—an edible type

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Kiss Off, Disease!

Wear your lipstick like warpaint… against DISEASE?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  We’re all told to “wrap it up” in sex ed. No glove, no love… or something like that. But that does NOTHING for kissing. How can we smooch safely? Alberto Tuñón-Molina and

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The Future is Fungus

How do you feel about… the fungus among us? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Heavy rains come, then ew, what are these? In the grass, in your flower beds, are those. . . mushrooms?!? Enter Shengen Liu and team from the Institute of Natural

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Killer Fungus

Hey – isn’t it YOUR turn to take out the trash?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying… more trash, more flies! And they can host a fungus called Entomophthora Muscae. Which has a sweet trick for turning its hosts into stealth killers! HOW? Andreas

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Mushroom Counterfeiters

Counterfeit mushrooms? That’s nothing to sniff at. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Italian alba white truffles are a fungal delicacy. Connoisseurs love their distinct aroma and taste. So much so, that their going rate is about three thousand dollars per pound! Unfortunately, the aroma

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Psychedelic Zombie

Clawing its way out of an earthen tomb…it’s the living dead, ready to feed! This is Sandra Tsing-Loh, with the Loh Down on Science. Imagine opening the door to find a horde of brain-hungry UNDEAD on your lawn! Yikes! Thankfully, zombies aren’t real. Right? Wrong! They ARE real! And they

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Fierce Fungus

What do you get when you cross a mushroom with a spider? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Mosquitoes are not just annoying — some are deadly! Anopheline mosquitoes in Africa transmit life-threatening diseases like malaria with one bite. What’s worse, they’re becoming resistant to

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Zombie Antz

News flash: Zombies. . . ARE REAL. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying… I don’t mean the human living dead, but troves of zombie ANTS??!! It happens when a parasitic fungus hijacks their brains.The fungus releases chemicals into the ants that compels them to

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