On Ice

Happy 2025!  Oof da—  Have you heard about Norway’s Doomsday Vault? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Never mind its grim nickname, Norway’s Crop Trust encompasses a storage vault—a kind of Noah’s Ark— for seeds.  The purpose: to ensure crop survival and diversity if there’s

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Thinking Plants

Can plants think? Would you believe… yes? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Consider barberry, a European shrub. It produces bean-sized fruits, each with one or two seeds. Its biggest threat is a tiny fruit fly. The fly injects its eggs into one of the

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Peter Piper’s Pesticide

If you can’t stand the heat… Stay off of my grass? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The grasslands in the United States are looking a little THIN these days! Conservationists are sowing new seeds to fatten up our amber waves of grain. Unfortunately, the

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Cotton Cuisine

How’d you like to wear your shirt —and eat it, too? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When fibers are plucked from a cotton plant, what’s left behind is pile of seeds practically bursting with protein. Unfortunately they’re also bursting with a

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