Finally, we can talk smack—WITHOUT it coming back! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Imagine talking to someone across a crowded room—without anyone else hearing! Jia-Xin Zhong and team from Penn State have discovered a way to create “audible enclaves.” They bent sound waves by
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*sniff sniff* Smells…noisy? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Is there a link between smell and sound? Enter Diego Hernandez and team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. They trained mice to associate high-pitched SOUNDS with WATER rewards, and fruity SMELLS with NO reward. When the
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Stop and smell the… NANO BOTS?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. How do you picture medicine delivery robots? Like tiny space crafts? What about flowers! Dong Wook Kim and team at Max Planck Institute designed particle-sized bloom-bots. But they’re not just pretty! Sound waves
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As the childhood tune goes: your nose brain’s connected to your… ear brain?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Why do certain culinary aromas make our ears perk up? Nathan Vogler and team at the University of Pennsylvania investigated. They identified a direct connection between
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The World Series just ended, so let’s focus on Europe—sports hooligans! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dutch acoustics engineers — Sander van Wijngaarden and Johan van Balkan — were soccer fans. Very annoyed soccer fans. The problem? Negative fan chanting. That’s a feedback loop of
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These glasses help you see… with your ears! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Blindness affects about thirty-nine million people worldwide. This can make daily life more difficult! Can technology help? Enter Howe Yuan Zhu and team from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. They
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We are aliveeee with the sooounds of our boooodiess! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. From beats to burps, our bodily functions continuously make sounds – *RASPBERRY*… Wasn’t me… Anyway, changes or stops in bodily sounds can indicate a problem. What sort of problem? Enter
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Why are we so productive at bustling coffee shops?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Noise can be a distraction. When it’s too loud, it’s hard to work. But too quiet isn’t great either! So what’s the Goldilocks zone? Enter Karthik Srinivasan from the University
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SHHHH! I’m trying to SLEEP. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. City noise is a big issue. But not for moths! Their scaly wings literally have NOISE-CANCELING abilities – it keeps them from becoming bat food. Could MOTHS offer a solution for noise pollution? Thomas
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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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