Zoning Out of Zoom

I LOVE back-to-back Zoom meetings! Said no one…EVER.   This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  Melanie Brucks of Columbia University and Jonathan Levav at Stanford randomly paired up six hundred-plus people. Each pair worked together – either in person or virtually – to come up with

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Light Wash

Salad spinner? Too much effort! I’m Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Hospitals know ultraviolet light kills germs.  But it’s super expensive! Enter Joshua Cassar and team from the U-S Department of Animal Science. They applied PULSES of UV light to diseases commonly found on food. Like E.

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Macho Voters

Here’s presidential election science that may trigger a spit take! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Nerves on edge? Take the long view — Look back to 2008–we were all so young then!  Obama versus McCain.    Duke University neuroscientists wondered: Does vicariously participating in contests

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The Apple Falls

You gotta fight for your right…to fix your iPhone! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Kyle Wiems, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo engineering student.  2003, Apple iBook falls off of his dorm bed!  Electricity light’s dark, probably mechanical—loose wire, broken metal part— In the

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Antiprism-tastic!

So excited!  Sunday, November 3rd is One World Antiprism Day!!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  What’s a prism? Picture a Toblerone box—ends are two small triangles, sides are three long skinny rectangles, spelling out “To-bler-one.”   An antiprism? Hold the two triangular ends, twist them. 

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Brain-blowing

Your brain is a masterpiece! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Scientists have long scratched their heads studying brains. But brain tissue is a scarce resource! Can we make more brains? Enter Yuanwei Yan and Xueyan Li from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They developed a

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Green with Energy

Hm—how truly green ARE those green LED’s? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Computers, phones, lamps – our world runs on LEDs! But so much electricity! And to make colors, red, blue, and green lights have to be combined, via an energy-sapping color filter. D.J.

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Chattering Chicks

It’s tough being the new bird on the block. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Migration is sometimes necessary for survival. But animals with social structures might need to re-learn how to be….social! Enter the Cirl Bunting: a brown sparrow-sized bird. They’ve been studied in

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Piezo2 for Better Poo

Countdown to… NUMBER TWO?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many struggle with chronic constipation. But what causes this stoppage? Lauren Jones and Flinders University in Australia wanted to CLEAR THIS UP. Our gut contracts to move food along the digestive tract. Piezo2 is a

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Resurrected Roots

Help! It’s the attack of the zombie… leaves?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Tree ferns were once dinosaur food, but guess which scaley beasts this flora outlasted. How? James Dalling and colleagues from the University of Illinois were collecting tree ferns. They saw rot

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