Your daily 90-second dose of real science for real people, with Sandra Tsing Loh!
Got a nervous habit? Maybe you’re a perfectionist! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Nail biting. Skin picking. Hair pulling. These are all examples of body-focused repetitive disorders—or BFRDs for short. Are they just nervous habits? Canadian researchers think not. They believe BFRDs are
Introducing hanger. Part hunger, part anger, let’s party! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: You know what I’m talking about. Now, don’t get hangry with me. Point is, it’s hard to be nice when your stomach is growling. Why? A dietician at Texas A&M
Who’s smarter? Man’s best friend? Or wolves? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many canine experts say dogs are smarter than wolves. That’s based on studies where researchers gave both animals unsolvable tasks. Like: removing treats from jars. Dogs usually give up. They turn their
Can mosquito species tell each other apart? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Well, not really. That’s why yellow fever mosquitoes will try to mate with Asian tiger mosquitoes, and vice versa. Enter University of Florida entomologists. They wondered about yellow fever mosquito populations
Got a problem? Ask yourself: What would Sigmund Freud say? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We often listen to our gut when making decisions. Well, according to Spanish researchers, Sigmund Freud’s gut trumps our own. Sort of. The researchers used virtual reality for an
Can you teach a chimp to cook? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Chimps probably won’t be whipping up souffles anytime soon. But there is evidence they might want to. Meet Alexandra Rosati and Felix Warneken of Harvard University. They’ve been conducting some intriguing
Can our hormones make us cheaters? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Most discussions about cheating focus on ethics. But psychologist Robert Josephs, of the University of Texas at Austin, wondered: Are hormones involved? Because goodness knows hormones impact other decisions. If you know what
A rose is a rose is a rose, right? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: Except when it’s yellow! Roses aside, University of York researchers have discovered something very strange about that color. People’s perception of it changes from winter to summer! As part
Are sexist men less evolved? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet biologist Michael Kasumovic. He studies evolution in various contexts. Like online. For example, when male gamers, hiding behind Internet anonymity, harass female gamers. Kasumovic’s team participated anonymously in the multiplayer shoot-em-up game, Halo-Three.
Where’s the Terminator when you really need him? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and an ecosystem under attack. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is truly a wonder of the natural world. But it faces a dangerous interloper: The Crown of Thorns starfish, or “COT” for