Human trash is a birds’ feast! Or a last supper? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Andrea Townsend and colleagues from Hamilton College and UC Davis. They tested for differences in cholesterol levels, general health, and survival rates, between urban and rural baby crows.
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Is the cure for cancer… a pair of strappy new shoes?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Pancreatic cancer is sneaky – it hides until it’s too late. Doctors hunt for clues in blood: a marker called CA19-9. But current tests? Pricey, slow, and very
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Your heart’s working hard – but how hard, exactly? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Your “stroke volume” is how much blood your heart pumps with every beat! It’s crucial info during sepsis, surgery, and shock. But it usually means bulky machines or… poking around
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What if your snack… talked back? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Birds often copy each other, but some even mimic their predators. Why? Enter Trinity Harvey and team at Cal Poly Humboldt. They tracked forty-nine Steller’s Jays in California. For a year, researchers followed
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Hey man, can I bum a ride… to Mars?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Spacecraft cleanrooms use rigorous procedures to ensure no microbial guests stow away on missions. However, some bacteria are hard to detect, since they don’t form spores. Madhan Tirumalai and team
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Help! Capybara catastrophe! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Forget mice! Imagine if your home was infested with giant brown guinea pigs! South America’s capybaras are the world’s largest rodents. Some consider them pests, but they’re illegal to hunt. Is there a harmless way to
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Welcome sweater weather! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In Southern California, you can relax on the beach and hike in the mountains on the same day. You may need a windbreaker, hoodie, and jacket, though. What if you didn’t need all that wardrobe to
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Never bring cocktail sauce to a shrimp fight. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The Peacock mantis shrimp throws the strongest punch in the animal kingdom. Their club-like claws deliver blows as damaging as twenty-two caliber bullets. Yowch! It’s been a mystery how the shrimp
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Ice ice birdy! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Arctic birds are ecosystem all-stars. But when did they first take on the poles? Enter Patrick S. Druckenmiller and team from University of Alaska’s Museum of the North! They discovered Arctic bird fossils from seventy million
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Is the cure for cancer… the bench team?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Immunotherapy rallies our defenses against tumors. But sometimes, the defense gets… tired. Older cells release inflammatory signals that weaken immune response. Can we replace them with a “second string?” Get in
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