Going Batty

What’s Batman’s REAL super-power? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Viruses take energy and nutrients from their hosts. BUT it also takes energy to FIGHT viruses! In us humans, eventually, either the host or the virus dies. But, BATS can carry viruses for YEARS. How?

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Feel-Good Fingertips

I’d like the French manicure and some … fake fingertips? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and a new material with feeling. Literally! Meet Jonghwa Park, from Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. He and fellow engineers fabricated a special film out of

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Hockey Noise

Now that hockey season’s ending, let’s check the damage. To participants’ groins, teeth, ears? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Consider this study on hockey noise done by University of Alberta audiologists Richard Liu and William Hodgetts. To measure the overall noise during three play-off

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Flash Flu Fix

Travelling on an airplane this flu season? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. AH-CHOO! Scootch scootch! Between the close quarters and recycled air, there’s a good chance you’ll catch something. You can try to protect yourself by wearing a mask or popping vitamin C. But

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Kitty Placebo

Do our pets experience the placebo effect? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The placebo effect is when people’s belief that a treatment is working makes them feel better. But we can also imagine that a treatment is making our pets better. So how can

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Diet Roulette

Eat right so your pants won’t be tight! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, asking, but how? From Atkins to South Beach to vegan diets, new diet trends never stop! But all have mixed reviews. Is there a healthy meal plan that works for everyone?

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Just Add Mushrooms

Look out! Pothole! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Potholes and cracks. Every commuter’s nightmare. If only the problem could fix itself! Enter Congrui Jin and her team at Binghamton and Rutgers universities. They filled in the cracks by hiring some self-motivated construction workers. Who?

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The Nasal Cycle

Did you know your nose has its own cycle? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A whopping eighty percent of us have a nasal cycle. Meaning that congestion alternates from one nostril to the other throughout the day. We just don’t usually notice because our

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Freezing Hot

Sick of waiting for your ice cubes to freeze? Maybe the water is too cold! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Did you know that hot water FREEZES much faster than cold water? This paradox was first observed by Artistole centuries ago. It later became

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Bridesmaids

Can your bridesmaids predict your lifespan? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientists say personality somewhat predicts mortality. For example, inactive, fatty-food-loving people are susceptible to early heart attacks. Psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis were interested in this mortality connection. Problem is, most

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