Drowsy Penguins

What’s black, white, and LOVES siestas? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Humans enjoy cat naps, particularly at our desks, but if you’re a creature out in the wild? Dozing off can make you lunch for predators. Or does it? Enter the Chinstrap penguins of

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Puzzling Pregnancy Puking

Morning sickness? *retch*!! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Nausea and vomiting affects SEVENTY percent of pregnant women. It can even cause hospitalization; but why’s it happen? Enter Marlena Fejzo and the University of Southern California. First, they analyzed blood from three hundred pregnant women

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Seeing Ret(inol)

Someday they’ll find it–the Rainbow Connection! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Animals are kinda color-blind. Only some can tell between MEDIUM green wavelengths and LONG red wavelengths. And the different cells that sense color are tough to distinguish! Sarah Hadyniak and Johns Hopkins University

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Fluid Fractals

Freaky Fractals! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ever trip out on ink fractals? You make ‘em by putting ink onto wet paint. Then it spreads out symmetrically, like tree roots. How does it happen? San To Chan and the Okinawa Institute of Science and

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Covid Number Two

COVID detection is literally going down the toilet! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When health officials see new COVID-19 cases in a community, too late—it’s ALREADY been circulating. Is there an “organic” way to predict rising case numbers? Enter Haley Kappus-Kron and team from

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Printed Cure

Get my medicine! From the printer! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Liver cancer is increasingly treatable, especially with surgery. But cancer cells can remain, growing new tumors. Souha H. Youssef and team at University of South Australia said, not so fast. They three-D printed

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All About Algae

Pee-yew! Is that the smell of…. greenhouse… GAS?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Fertilizer’s stink comes from nitrogen. When plants can’t get enough of this nutrient from the air, we help them. But Tyler Coale and team from the University of California, Santa Cruz

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Itchy Skin

Got an itch you can’t scratch? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We all get itchy, but if you’ve got a skin condition, that’s the worst. The bacteria S. aureus is especially irritating. It produces an enzyme called V8 which sparks the pain. Is there

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Organ Farming

Vitamins… for veggies?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science… You are what you eat, and some health conditions can be improved with vitamins and minerals. Less potassium for kidney issues, more iodine for thyroids. So, what if we tailored how much is in our food?

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Climate Migration

Rising sea levels—inland homes become beachfront homes become. . . Dude, where’s my neighborhood? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Mathematical models predict over ONE-HUNDRED FORTY MILLION climate migrants by 2050. BUT they don’t consider SOCIAL migration factors like age or growing families. Enter Mathew

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