“Make new friends, but keep the old” – but what if you move 10,000 miles away?? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Foxgloves are purple or white bell-shaped flowers native to Europe. They hang off the stem, like fruits, and have short tubes that store
Continue readingTag: ecology
Sleigh Bells and Seaweed
Christmas came and went – and so did the cookies you left for Santa! But what do reindeer eat offseason? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Climate change in the far north freezes Rudolph’s favorite plants. It also melts sea-ice bridges, preventing reindeer from foraging
Continue readingBeaver Boosters
How can we DAM UP against species extinction?! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science saying… LEAVE IT TO BEAVER! Biodiversity worldwide is declining. Freshwater ecosystems are among the hardest hit communities! But one mammal is pulling more than its weight to help out its friends.
Continue readingFear Factor
RoboCop — meet RoboFish! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Enter the mosquitofish, hero-turned-villain. Mosquitofish were introduced in Australia to eat malaria-carrying mosquitos. But they ended up attacking native wildlife, like tadpoles. Can they be stopped? Giovanni Polverino from the University of Western Australia and
Continue readingSleigh Bells and Seaweed
Christmas came and went – and so did the cookies you left for Santa! But what do reindeer eat offseason? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Climate change in the far north freezes Rudolph’s favorite plants. It also melts sea-ice bridges, preventing reindeer from foraging
Continue readingBees or Birds?
“Make new friends, but keep the old” – but what if you move 10,000 miles away?? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Foxgloves are purple or white bell-shaped flowers native to Europe. They hang off the stem, like fruits, and have short tubes that store
Continue readingLet Them Eat Air
Can we make food out of thin air? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Soil is full of microbes. These tiny organisms eat and break down other organisms. They also recycle nutrients. But in desolate places on earth, or even in space, what is there
Continue readingLet it Brie
Ah, gay Par-ee! The smell of fresh baguettes, coffee, and… CHEESE! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying, oui, oui! In France, cheese gets its yummy taste from a special fungus called Penicillium camemberti. It’s had hundreds of years to hone its cheesy qualities. But
Continue readingScorpi-tecture
Who knew scorpions were fussy about architecture? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Ecologists at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev can shed some light on the matter. They’re studying holes in the ground – more officially known as burrows. Desert critters burrow to survive
Continue readingProbiotic Pollution Solution
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 disposal or spills. Even worse, it causes cancer! How can we
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