Want to go to space like Jeff Bezos? It’ll cost an arm, a leg…and a liver? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Thank your hardworking liver! It breaks down our cocktails AND removes chemicals from the body! Of course, we evolved to live on Earth
Continue readingTag: space
Space Race
Traveling to Mars? Don’t forget the sunblock! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying – Pop on those shades! Both the sun AND our galaxy put out some deadly stuff. Too much basking in cosmic rays can lead to cancer and even deadly radiation poisoning.
Continue readingRed Planet, Blue Planet
Mars is the RED planet … right? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Snaps from NASA’s Perseverance rover show a dry, dusty red landscape. But Mars used to be BLUE with water! Possibly as much as half the Atlantic Ocean. Where’d it go? Enter Eva
Continue readingOrigami Spaceship
What ancient craft is out of this world?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh, with the Loh Down on Science. Space is COLD! About minus four hundred and fifty five degrees Fahrenheit. Brr! Such chilly temperatures can turn spaceship materials brittle. Is there a way to make them more sturdy at
Continue readingSpace Spiders
Oh what a tangled web we weave…in space?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many spider webs found in nature are asymmetrical: their top part is smaller than the bottom. Could GRAVITY play a role in this off-center web weaving? Samuel Zschokke from the University
Continue readingVanishing Planets
Who can solve the Case of the Vanishing Planet…? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science… and a cold case from outer space. In two thousand four, the Hubble Space Telescope snapped a photo of the planet Fomalhaut-b. Astronomers noticed something odd about Foh-b. It wasn’t
Continue readingSpace Cans
Can you build a spaceship out of a soda can? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Space is a tough place to be. Flying debris, intense radiation, and alien blasters will tear you apart! So, spaceships gotta be tougher. That usually means building materials that
Continue readingStormy Stripes
Five hundred leagues under the WIND? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Jupiter – it’s one stylish planet! Its red, gold, and orange stripes – formed by violent winds and weather – give it an unmistakable look. For years, scientists have wondered how deep the
Continue readingLaser Sailing
Space…the final frontier! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Breakthrough Starshot is a globally funded engineering research project. Their mission? To send thin, sheetlike “starChips” into space and take closeup pictures of alien stars. A whole fleet of these objects is designed to sail through
Continue readingLife in Space
Men are from Mars. Women, from Venus. Really? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying not exactly. But check out this intriguing new cosmic discovery from the University of Nice. Researchers there were simulating conditions commonly found in comets. Why? To see if life might
Continue reading