Smart Swimmers

Are smarter people more so-fish-ticated? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fish may be colorful, but they aren’t very bright! Can they smarten up? Giulia Rossi and Patricia Wright from the University of Guelph in Canada think so! They study the mangrove killifish, a fish

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Little Champs

How do kids have so much BLEEPING energy? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Young children can scream and run around all day. It’s like they have enough energy to be Olympic athletes… But could they really? Anthony Birat and colleagues at Clermont-Auvergne University decided

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Blackest Black

Ladies love a guy dressed in black…especially lady SPIDERS! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying that’s right! Male peacock spiders use a slick dance and super black spots to woo the ladies. These areas aren’t just dark, they’re SUPER dark! Meaning, they absorb more

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Tough As A Lobster

Could your knight in shining armor be…a lobster? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science, saying…love this spiny shellfish? Well, chew on this! Ming Guo was doing just that one evening. Over dinner, he noticed that the film on the belly of his lobster was super

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Silky Secrets

My spidey senses are… silky? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. By weight, spider silk is stronger than steel! However, perfectly reproducing this versatile material has proven difficult. How do spiders successfully spin silk? Lucas Parent at Northwestern University and David Onofrei at San Diego

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Frogs and Frogettes

Why did the frog cross the street? She loved the open toad… I mean road! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. But if the frog crossed the street in winter? Salt on the road would keep driving conditions safe. Not so safe for frogs, perhaps..

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Bile Away the Pounds

Is the next weight loss supplement BILE? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, what is bile, anyway? Doctors think of bile – a greenish fluid in your stomach — as the body’s detergent. It helps digest fat. Yay, that’s a good thing! What ELSE

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Puffa Fish

Now, for some breathtaking research on puffer fish! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Puffer fish famously inflate into spiky spheres that are difficult for predators to eat. To do so, they swallow huge amounts of water. Their super-stretchy stomachs expand like water balloons. It’s

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Taking a Dive

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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Slim-Fast Mice

Oh look! A piece of yummy cheese! But…could this be a trap? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Everyone wants to lose weight, scientists just as much as anyone else! And some are looking for answers by studying… mice! At the University of Copenhagen, Karen

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