Feathered Songmasters

Why does the caged bird sing… karaoke?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying…  To remember their feathers! I mean fathers!  Enter Carlos Rodríguez‑Saltos from the University of Southern California. He studied how captive male zebra finches learn to sing.  Turns out, male juveniles usually learn

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The Sound of Home

A benefit concert for the ocean? Try a reef instrument! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Like thriving happy homes—think laughing kids, barking dogs—healthy coral reefs bustle with noise. Damaged reefs are much quieter. Light can help larval polyps settle and coral reefs grow. “What

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Good Mood

Prepping your taxes?  Feeling sad?  Wait, that’s a GOOD thing! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Adam Anderson, from the University of Toronto, wondered how mood affects concentration.  To make two dozen university students happy, he played them a quote, “jazzed-up version of Bach’s Brandenberg

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Musical Medicine

Music as medicine?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Has a song ever moved you to tears? Music’s emotional impact has inspired researchers from Shanghai to explore its potential to treat depression. They focused on its ability to activate brain circuits connected to emotion and

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Primate Popstars

They gather at dawn, lifting their voices high in sweet rhythms. Oh, and they’re lemurs! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. You might be jamming to some tunes in your car right now! Do any of our animal friends do the same? Ask Andrea Ravignani

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Radio Brains

Could music be the KEY to healthy brains?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science… saying… Be quiet! This is my jam! There’s nothing quite like good music to pick us up when we’re down. But could music help us recover from brain injuries?  That’s just

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Primate Popstars

They gather at dawn, lifting their voices high in sweet rhythms. Oh, and they’re lemurs! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. You might be jamming to some tunes in your car right now! Do any of our animal friends do the same? Ask Andrea Ravignani

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Sharky Soundtracks

Can you hear “the music of the . . . deep?” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Remember “Jaws?!” Brrrr! I don’t know which was scarier the thirty foot shark or that creepy soundtrack! Andrew Nosal from UC San Diego and colleagues pressed play. They

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Ocean Jazz

What’s a whale’s favorite music jam? Apparently: the bluuuuueees! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Forget Coachella – there’s a BIGGER music festival happening… deep in the north Atlantic ocean! The headliners? Breeding bowhead whales! All winter long, these whales flirt by singing songs to

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Piano, Man

Picture of female with tattoo smiling with headphones.

Sing us a song, you’re the piano man! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Watching feel-good movies like Pitch Perfect can put us in happy mode. And that emotion creates signals in certain parts of the brain.  Vesa Putkinen and colleagues from the University of

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