Diabolical Tank

The diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus)

What has six legs and is INDESTRUCTIBLE?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dropped your phone and cracked it AGAIN?? Can’t they make these cases stronger? Jesus Rivera from UC Riverside and team found the solution hiding in a tree. The Diabolical Ironclad beetle makes

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Workout or Pass Out

Photo of Asian female studying and biting pencil in frustration.

Finals season – time to pull an all-nighter!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying…can I just get forty winks first?  We know that both sleep and exercise are good for memory. But in which order? Is there a “magic formula”  to cram for that

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Piano, Man

Picture of female with tattoo smiling with headphones.

Sing us a song, you’re the piano man! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Watching feel-good movies like Pitch Perfect can put us in happy mode. And that emotion creates signals in certain parts of the brain.  Vesa Putkinen and colleagues from the University of

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Cricket Allergies

Picture of a cricket

What sounds good: lobster roll or…cricket sandwich?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. That crab cake looks delicious — but watch out! For some, shellfish can cause major allergic reactions! Why? They contain very SPECIFIC molecules known as allergy causing proteins. BUT could a land-lubbing

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Hearsight

A Black woman giving presentation with left-hand lifted to emphasis a point.

You heard what you … SAW?!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: PER-fect timing to per-FECT your presentation skills! You can’t SEE me talking right now – but would you hear my words differently if you could? Enter Hans Rutger Bosker and David Peeters

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Gas to First Class

Plane coming in for landing.

Fight carbon dioxide with…flight? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Back during the Renaissance, alchemists tried to turn metal into gold. No, it didn’t work – but what about some modern-day alchemy? Planes in flight burn fossil fuels, creating carbon dioxide. But could CO2 be

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Global Glow

Biofluorescent Springhares

Pop quiz: What hops. . . and glows?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We’ve told you about glowing platypuses in Australia. And there are possums in the Americas that glow too! This glow-in-the-dark feature is called biofluorescence. Where else in the world can we

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Camera Off!

Image of zoom conference call on mac book.

Zoom meeting? Quick, turn OFF the camera!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ah, FINALLY. Work done, laptop closed. Time to binge some Netflix! But does my downtime have a downside? Producing and storing data takes a LOT of power, typically created by burning fossil

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Bad Apples

Apples

No kidding – that’s one BAD apple! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When choosing apples, do you grab the brightest one? Maybe you should give that off-colored produce a second look! Laura Bolos from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and colleagues recruited over

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Bandage Diagnosis

Image shows the microneedle-based skin patch from article which can be used for rapid medical testing.

Doc – it’s been two days! Where are my medical results? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. You’ve come down with a bug, so you took a blood test. Now, you’re waiting for the results AND a huge medical bill. Is there a faster —

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