The secret to a long, healthy life? Ask a tortoise! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Lonesome George was a tortoise who passed away in twenty twelve — at a SPRY one hundred years old. Seriously, one hundred is young for a tortoise! Some have
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Gaaah – this place is so cluttered! Do I NEED all this stuff? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying…maybe! Just like that overstuffed closet, your body is crammed with different proteins. Your genes contain blueprints for all of them. But some proteins have multiple,
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Why do cats come in so many different colors? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science Calico cats are mostly white with patches of orange and black fur. Though the pattern is always different, they almost all have something in common. Ninety-nine percent of calico cats
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Which is more powerful? Nature or nurture? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying – what about “mind control?” Some aspects of our physiology and personality are encoded by our genes. And we know that environmental factors are also important. Bradley Turnwald and colleagues at
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Is it the end of men? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Men. Who needs ‘em! Not some female sharks, spiders, and komodo dragons. They can create babies on their own. Mammals are different. For us, certain genes important for embryonic development are turned OFF
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Getting a twenty-one isn’t just a win at blackjack! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In the endless pursuit of a healthy lifestyle, research is turning to our genetics. Specifically, the work of Tim Frayling and researchers at the University of Exeter. They’re leading an
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Cells can have nuclei, mitochondria and… family secrets? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We each have a family tree of ancestors. Turns out, our cells also have a family tree! Doctors can use them to isolate diseased cells. But no one has created a
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How’d you like to wear your shirt —and eat it, too? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When fibers are plucked from a cotton plant, what’s left behind is pile of seeds practically bursting with protein. Unfortunately they’re also bursting with a
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Which hurts more—creeping barefoot across a bed of hot coals, or shoving razor sharp knives into your arms? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Neither! At least for members of certain street-performing family from Pakistan. All six members were born with the inability to
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Bread, beer, infections—what’s the common thread? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying, in many cases, it’s yeast. But where did the FIRST yeast start? Meet scientists Gianni Liti from the Université Côte d’Azur and Joseph Schacherer from the Université de Strasbourg. They studied the
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