Workout Music

Need a workout boost? Skip the energy drink and try headphones instead! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientific evidence shows that music can help you push through a workout. But could listening to your favorite tunes make you go EVEN HARDER? Andrew Danso and

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Simulating Violins

A great violin should sing and inspire you, not make you wince. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Violin making is a delicate craft – small imperfections can ruin everything. Traditionally, sound is only evaluated after the instrument is done. Adjustments can be time-consuming and

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Musical Medicine

Medicine from SOUND? That’s music to my ears. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. How will non-medication dementia treatments, like music listening, play out? This challenge struck a chord with Naomi Thompson and team from Anglia Ruskin University.  At dementia-specialized care centers, music therapists trained staff

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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

Continue reading