Does water have a flavor? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Our tongue has taste buds to detect if something is sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. But how do we taste water? A team from Caltech may have uncovered the HIDDEN taste of water. How?
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Hate cleaning house? Here’s a fun new solution! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Larvaceans are ocean creatures that resemble tadpoles. Every day they build a three-foot long mucus shelter that also traps food. To eat, the larvacean pumps and filters seawater through this gooey
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What do trees, coastlines, and pineapples have in common? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Answer? They’re all FRACTALS, shapes that repeat as you zoom in. Their aesthetically-pleasing geometry inspires artists, writers, and even scientists! Sagar Khare’s team from Rutgers University felt drawn to fractals…
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Yikes – dropped your smartphone in the toilet… again?!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying… Wouldn’t it be great if our precious devices were water-proof? Or even better – LIQUID and STAIN proof? Meet Paul Leu and his research team from the University of
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Is the key to finding dark matter. . . in your fridge? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Water freezes because impurities act as “seeds” for ice crystals to grow. But, if you put PURE water in the freezer, it can stay liquid – even
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Everyone into the pool!…on MARS? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A long time ago, in a galaxy not at all far away, Mars was super wet. How wet? About twenty-percent covered in liquid! But now our Red Planet is dry and dusty. Where did
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To avoid those annoying coffee-rings on your table, try switching to whiskey! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Slow down. This study comes to us via engineers Hyoungsoo Kim and Howard Stone at Princeton University. They were inspired by photographer Ernie Button’s portraits of
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The ants go rafting one by one. Hoorah! Hoorah! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: No, ants don’t raft one-by-one. Many types of ants are social, and act as a team . . . or in this case a crew! A team of scientists
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Shellfish are tasty. But can they illuminate the past? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Professor Pupa Gilbert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studies pen shells. That’s a large, clam-like shellfish commonly found in Florida. Specifically, she studies their nacre, or mother-of-pearl. It’s that iridescent
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Water treatment that’s effective…and CUTE! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Most treatment facilities purify water by using chemicals that glob onto bad stuff. But this process isn’t perfect… if only someone could lend a hand… or a tentacle?! Introducing the sea anemone Actinia! It
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