Baking Bedbugs

The newest gizmo for airport security. . . ovens? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Bed bugs have been making a worldwide comeback by evolving pesticide resistance. Gross! How can we stop them?! Enter Catherine Loudon, an entomologist at the University of California, Irvine. She’s

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Hey, That’s My Spot!

Parking structures!  Hivelike, crowded, suffocating. . . literally? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. If you feel suffocated in over-crowded parking structures, there could be a reason. We know that cars contribute to air pollution. And parking garages have lots of cars. So, it’s no

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Bumble-Drones

Flight of the bumblebee? More like flight of the bumble…drone! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Engineers are always looking to make things lighter, faster, and stronger. Origami-inspired structures are lightweight and cost-effective. That’s perfect for improving robot technology such as drones. However, they have

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Race for the Cure

Computers always beat me at chess! What ELSE are they better at? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Pathologists discover two hundred thousand cases of lung cancer each year. Diagnosis requires time-consuming lab tests and a trained eye for pictures of lung tissue. Is there

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Robot Overlords

What does a robot and your boss have in common? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. With humanoid robots becoming more and more realistic, scientists are investigating them as social tools. Now researchers at University of Clermont Auvergne are using social robots for more… sinister

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DVD Extras

Is a new aid in treating heart disease. . . Netflix? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Streaming movies on demand has killed the D-V-D. What to do with the old disks? You only need so many suncatchers, right? Enter Hua-Zhong Yu’s team at the

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R-Ray Spex

WOW! X-Ray Specs! Remember ordering those? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying yeah, mine didn’t work either! But, good news, kids! Researchers from M-I-T think they have a NEW way to see through walls. Dina Katabi used radio waves to map people’s locations. This

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Wired Walls

Smart phones, smart speakers, smart watches! What’s next? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying….smart WALLS? Walls are the canvases of a room, showcasing beautiful paintings and crayon drawings. With some new technology, you could digitally interact with your walls! The creative minds at Carnegie

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Smell Detector

Is the bathroom still smelly? Odorbot to the rescue! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ever dream of having a day when smelling unpleasant odors is a distant memory? Kenshi Hayashi and colleagues at Kyushu University share this dream. And they’re working on a solution:

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Caveman Cartoons

What do you picture when you hear… “WILMAAA!!?” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When describing a scene, humans create a visual image of it in their mind’s eye. Could computers do the same? Meet Tanmay Gupta and researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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