Even the prettiest flowers have to compete for attention! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dahlias, daisies, sunflowers – as a florist, you want to build the most beautiful bouquets! But what if you’re a scientist? Martino Adamo and a team from the University of
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Eye-Catching Biases
Even the prettiest flowers have to compete for attention! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Dahlias, daisies, sunflowers – as a florist, you want to build the most beautiful bouquets! But what if you’re a scientist? Martino Adamo and a team from the University of
Continue readingStone-Age Bouquet
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet… even to dinosaurs? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Flowers from one hundred million years ago had different standards of beauty. Scientists believe they looked differently from today’s flowers, lacking the colorful petals bees love.
Continue readingThinking Plants
Can plants think? Would you believe… yes? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Consider barberry, a European shrub. It produces bean-sized fruits, each with one or two seeds. Its biggest threat is a tiny fruit fly. The fly injects its eggs into one of the
Continue readingSuper Spinach
Spinach! Excellent source of vitamins, minerals — bomb detection? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and with the latest twist on your favorite superfood. Plants are constantly taking in information from their surroundings. Their roots act like telephone wires that communicate and receive signals from
Continue readingPeter Piper’s Pesticide
If you can’t stand the heat… Stay off of my grass? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. The grasslands in the United States are looking a little THIN these days! Conservationists are sowing new seeds to fatten up our amber waves of grain. Unfortunately, the
Continue readingMartian Gardens
We’ve all heard of “farm to table”—But what if your table is on Mars? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s hard to get fresh veggies in space. But future colonists will need them for long-term survival. Enter researchers from Wageningen University in The Netherlands.
Continue readingCotton Cuisine
How’d you like to wear your shirt —and eat it, too? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When fibers are plucked from a cotton plant, what’s left behind is pile of seeds practically bursting with protein. Unfortunately they’re also bursting with a
Continue readingPollination Revelation
Is your margarita. . . endangered? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Insects like bees and butterflies are known for their pollinating prowess. When they feed on the sweet nectar from flowers, pollen rubs off on their legs. This pollen transfers to other flowers so
Continue readingBumblebeer
Bees can sting, but can they make you…tipsy? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Brewing beer is an age-old tradition, and it’s all thanks to YEAST. There are nearly two thousand kinds of yeast on Earth. But only two types are used to brew beer:
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