In your coffee — Sugar or Splenda? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Our bodies CRAVE sugar for energy. Artificial sweeteners and sugar activate our sweet-sensing taste buds. But substitutes like Splenda and Sweet n’ Low don’t fully satisfy us. Why is that? Hwei-Ee
Continue readingTag: mice
Odd Couple Mice
Hey, lab mice – take a walk on the wild side! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. For fifty years, scientists have worked hard to breed a standard lab mouse. Similar mice let researchers have better control over their experiments. They can compare different drugs
Continue readingSqueaky Gains
Trying to get healthy? So are mice! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Turns out, our furry friends share our aging woes of round bellies and weak muscles. What if we could lose flab and get strong in one stroke? Alexander Pfeifer and colleagues from
Continue readingRock-a-bye Mousey
(singing) Rockabye mousie, in the tree-top…. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Being rocked to sleep – it’s not just for babies! Laying on a hammock on a hot summer’s day will make anybody yawn. But are there other species that love being swayed baaaaaack
Continue readingGood to the Bone
Oh SNAP! Was that a bone fracture? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying.. Broken bones are no joke! They take forever to heal… until now? Enter Shyni Varghese from Duke University and her team. They believe they have found a key player to speed
Continue readingAltering Memories
Are you haunted by the past? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science, asking… Remember your high school days? That time you threw up in front of your crush? Want to erase those embarrassing memories? Meet Briana Chen from Columbia University and colleagues from Boston University.
Continue readingThree High Mice
If you give a mouse LSD…THEN what? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Hallucinations are tricky to study. So it’s hard to develop effective treatments for disorders like schizophrenia. Giving people LSD to make them hallucinate? Probably a bad idea. Fortunately, it’s much easier, well,
Continue reading50 Shades of Blue
Wearing one red sock and one blue sock today? That’s what you get for dressing in the dark! Sort of. This is Sandra Tsing Loh with The Loh Down on Science. Think of vision as a series of brain cells turning each other on. Not so much romantically, as literally.
Continue readingSinging Mouseketeers
Mousey in conversations? You’re not alone! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Some conversations just flow naturally. Others…not so much! Imagine small talk with the in-laws! Ugh! You have to tiptoe around sensitive topics, AND coordinate a hundred different mouth muscles! How does your brain
Continue readingThree Mom Mice
Is it the end of men? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Men. Who needs ‘em! Not some female sharks, spiders, and komodo dragons. They can create babies on their own. Mammals are different. For us, certain genes important for embryonic development are turned OFF
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