Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science and a fun bar bet! David van der Spoel and team at Norway’s Uppsala University wondered: Is it harder to lift a glass off a table wet with water, or alcohol? They measured the work
Continue reading
January 10th: Happy Houseplant Appreciation Day! This is Sandra with the Loh Down on Science. You’ve heard: “Don’t water your plants at noon, because they’ll burn!” Botanists from Hungary’s Eotvos University wondered if sun rays and water droplets could actually fry plants. They combined computer models with experimental tests on
Continue reading
Freaky Fractals! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ever trip out on ink fractals? You make ‘em by putting ink onto wet paint. Then it spreads out symmetrically, like tree roots. How does it happen? San To Chan and the Okinawa Institute of Science and
Continue reading
Did you hear that SCREECH? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We’re not the only ones WORN OUT by travel. Planes, trains, and automobiles – all get HEATED when there’s too much friction. Sometimes their metal even melts to a semi-liquid state. Scary! BUT, at
Continue reading
AHHH! An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth! What to do??? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: ready…aim…FIRE! But would that REALLY work? Let’s find out! George Flynn at State University of New York crushed up real meteorite fragments, acquired from the Vatican Observatory. Then,
Continue reading
Ugh, this physics test is driving me BATTY! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We humans aren’t born knowing physics! But what gives with a bat? Bats emit ultrasounds which tell them where objects are by how fast the sound waves return. So . .
Continue reading
AHHH! An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth! What to do??? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: ready…aim…FIRE! But would that REALLY work? Let’s find out! George Flynn at State University of New York crushed up real meteorite fragments, acquired from the Vatican Observatory. Then,
Continue reading
Diamonds are forever…and take forever to make! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Diamonds — SO divine! But they take billions of years to form and mining is dangerous. Who can wait that long for luxury? Dougal McCulloch and colleagues at RMIT University in Melbourne,
Continue reading
Movie magic meets… popcorn science? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. No movie night is complete without delicious, buttery popcorn! But have you ever wondered what makes those kernels pop and jump? A study led by Ecole Polytechnic tried to explain this phenomenon. Two French
Continue reading
The sound of insomnia: cue the LEAKY FAUCET! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, on the most annoying sound ever. What causes that DRIP DRIP of a leaky bathtub? It’s not what you think! Anurag Agarwal at the University of Cambridge discovered the cause —
Continue reading