Prescription for a Dream

Can’t remember your dreams? Take your vitamins! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Psychologists think that “lucid dreaming” – when you’re aware that you’re having a dream – can help people overcome nightmares. Some people keep dream journals to help them be more aware of

Continue reading

Hidden Brain

If your eyes are the window to your soul, what’s the window to your brain? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Many people suffer from diseases that require brain surgery to treat and monitor. Unfortunately, brain surgery requires an open skull – risky and complex!

Continue reading

Amped-Up Memory

Your brain – what’s it up to…at night? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. It’s not just cooking up bizarre dreams! Sleep is also thought to affect memory formation.. Our natural electrical brain activity helps seal in those memories, converting them from short-term to long-term.

Continue reading

The Nerve!

Are cockroaches lending a helping hand? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. I know – technically cockroaches don’t have hands… But they do have legs, and they’re revolutionizing prosthetic limbs. How? Yeongin Kim and colleagues at Stanford University have created an artificial nerve. It senses

Continue reading

Croc Meets Bach

Photo of a crocodile laying in wet sand

Do crocodiles like the Crocodile Rock …or do they prefer classical? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. When you get a concussion, doctors use an M-R-I to take pictures of your brain. Remember that big hollow tube that patients lie down inside of on Grey’s

Continue reading

Stressy Study

Are you STRESSING OUT right now? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Life is full of stressful situations – exams! Traffic! Which remote goes with which appliance?!! And the effects of stress are usually thought to be harmful to our health. But WHY do we

Continue reading

Seeing is…Feeling?

Can you trust your …eyes? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. A lot of our feelings come from what we see. Imagine how you feel looking at a colorful sunset, or a deep car scrape. But could our FEELINGS change how we SEE things? Erika

Continue reading

Obey Your Thirst

Obey your thirst! Your brain commands it! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Meet Yuki Oka of the California Institute of Technology. He and collaborators have a thirst for knowledge. Literally! They’ve pinpointed two groups of cells in mouse brains that control thirst. Kind of

Continue reading

Count Your Brain Cells

“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 reading