Category: Episodes

; Credit: Ignorance is Bliss The Loh Down On Science Paper, plastic, and… cigarette butts? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Urban birds scrounge up people’s trash to build their nests. No butts about it! Just like cigarettes aren’t good for you or me, they

; Credit: Michael Blaylock/Edenspace Systems Corporation The Loh Down On Science Probiotics… it’s not just for breakfast anymore! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. There’s no easy way to clean up the pollutant trichloroethylene, or T-C-E. This common industrial solvent leaches into soils from improper

; Credit: Julie Macey The Loh Down On Science Surf’s up dude! Grab your. . . calculator? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  Surfers travel all over the world in search of the perfect wave. But even if you’re not riding monster waves in Hawaii,

The Loh Down On Science Hey English speakers, want to learn a second language? Maybe not Chinese. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet bilingual Hebrew-English speaker Shahar Ronen. When he was a graduate student at MIT, he got curious about how well different modern languages

; Credit: Oka Laboratory/Caltech The Loh Down On Science Does water have a flavor?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  Our tongue has taste buds to detect if something is sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. But how do we taste water? A team from Caltech

; Credit: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SARAH ROGERS/THE DAILY BEAST The Loh Down On Science Did hippie dinosaurs get high on fungus?  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. If you ever see grain or grass with black nibs, be cautious!  That could be ergot: a toxic,

The Loh Down On Science Ommmmm….can mindfulness help us live longer? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Yoga, meditation and Tai-Chi are proven ways to relieve anxiety and stress. But could these activities also help prevent disease? Ivana Buric at Coventry University studied how our

; Credit: /Getty Images The Loh Down On Science Stuck in traffic? You’re not alone—or maybe you are! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.  Traffic congestion just seems to be getting WORSE, doesn’t it??!! To encourage carpooling, traffic engineers created high-occupancy vehicle or H-O-V lanes.

The Loh Down On Science Did asteroid collisions jumpstart life on Earth? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying:  Maybe! Our planet was a rough place before life emerged billions of years ago.  Volcanic eruptions, noxious chemicals in the air …  Oh yeah – and