“You can’t teach an old dog…”—how does that go? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. As you age, certain motor functions begin to slow down. You don’t move as fast as you used to, and you become a tad forgetful. Based on past studies, most
Continue readingTag: physiology
Calories Count
Can you eat yourself to death? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A stick of butter can make ANYTHING taste good. But oops… Calories galore! They can add to our waistline. But could excess calories also speed up our metabolism, or even how fast we
Continue readingMonkeys vs. Humans
Are humans really at the top of the food chain? This is Sandra Tsing Loh, with the Loh Down on Science. Compared to our great ape cousins, we humans are way ahead in the evolutionary race. We’ve got bigger brains. We also reproduce faster than expected for our body size.
Continue readingTattoo You
I’m gonna look so tough with my Hello Kitty tattoo! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. We all know tattoos are permanent. But science says our body recycles most of our cells every seven years. Old beat up cells are replaced with sprightly new cells!
Continue readingHair Today, Gone Tomorrow
Got thinning hair? Now we know why! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. All types of mammals experience hair thinning as they age. Ugh. In both sexes, it’s thought to be caused by shrinking hair follicles. But stem-cell biologists in Japan weren’t content with shrinkage
Continue readingSleep Testing
Sleep. You want it, you need it, but are you getting enough? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Compared to half a century ago, we get about two hours less of sleep every night! And the cost of progress is measurable: lack-of-sleep-related driving accidents, medical
Continue readingFatter Bugs
Feeling fat? Blame it on your gut—and by that we mean the bacteria that live inside it! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Jeffrey Gordon, from Washington University in Missouri, analyzed the belly flora of twelve obese people. He found they all had increased amounts
Continue readingFantastic Voyage
Do you remember the classic movie, Fantastic Voyage? If not that, then at least Raquel Welch’s jumpsuit? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s fun to think about how 21st century science has actually caught up with 1960s science fiction. In this case, think mini-submarines
Continue readingFeel-Good Fingertips
I’d like the French manicure and some … fake fingertips? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and a new material with feeling. Literally! Meet Jonghwa Park, from Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. He and fellow engineers fabricated a special film out of
Continue readingHockey Noise
Now that hockey season’s ending, let’s check the damage. To participants’ groins, teeth, ears? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Consider this study on hockey noise done by University of Alberta audiologists Richard Liu and William Hodgetts. To measure the overall noise during three play-off
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