There’s nothing like seabirds to. . . take a dive! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s a beautiful sight: seabirds diving head first into the water to catch unsuspecting prey. A perfect ten! But the northern gannet (GA-nit) takes gold with its flawless, high-speed
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Slipping on a banana peel – Cartoon pratfall, or fascinating biology? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. What makes banana peels so slippery? That’s what Kiyoshi Mabuchi colleagues at Japan’s Kitasato University wondered. So they set up a scientific slip n’ slide! They placed a
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Moon walking: Not as easy as it looks! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. For astronauts, the moon’s weaker gravity can be disorienting. How do we know? Astronauts stumble! NASA has the blooper reels to prove it. That’s because gravity doesn’t just anchor us. It
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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 —
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Unsure of when Mercury’s in retrograde? Blame Einstein! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Forwards, backwards – understanding Mercury’s kooky orbit has never been easy! Scientists were unable to do it for years. Then along came Einstein with his theory of relativity. In brief, the
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Am I tipsy, or are my beer bubbles….sinking?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fans of the Irish stout, Guinness, are perplexed. The bubbles in their pints seem to…. sink! William Lee, a mathematician at the University of Portsmouth has BURST this case wide open!
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Next time you’re sitting at a tippy restaurant table, don’t get mad. Think Wobbleology! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Wobbleology is the science of, yes, wobbly restaurant tables. New Scientist magazine coined the term. But the credit goes to these folks: researchers at Monash
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Sick of waiting for your ice cubes to freeze? Maybe the water is too cold! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Did you know that hot water FREEZES much faster than cold water? This paradox was first observed by Artistole centuries ago. It later became
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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
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Sorry Spider-man, but you’re no gecko! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Zoologists at the University of Cambridge wondered: Why can some animals with sticky feet scale walls while others can’t? They studied 225 climbing animals of various sizes. From mites and spiders to tree
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