Guilty Pleasures

Hark! Is that the ice cream truck I hear? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Trips are fun — but guilt trips are not! Guilt shapes much of our actions, for better or worse. But can we control those guilty feelings? Kristen Duke and On

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Spoiling the Spoiler

Harry Potter fans: Spoiler alert! Snape kills Dumbledore! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Feeling upset right now? You’re not alone. A spoiler is learning the end of a story before it begins. This includes who won last night’s game, or what happened to your

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Trusty Wrinkles

Should I skip the wrinkle cream tonight? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying yes! We all notice the wrinkles around our eyes. But what do wrinkles reveal about us? Julio Martinez-Trujillo and his team at the University of Western Ontario study wrinkle communication. They

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Looking for Trouble

Problems — do we get what we look for? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Maybe you’ve heard THIS story: a neighborhood watch lowers crime in an area. But once the burglaries stop, the watch doesn’t relax. Instead, people start calling in jaywalkers! It’s called

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Fish Fingers

Could that fish stick solve the secret to our sense of touch? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, saying: the answer is right at our fingertips. Meet Adam Hardy. He and colleagues from University of Chicago want to know how fingers feel. To do this

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Going Gray

ANOTHER gray hair? Oh no! Break out the Lady Grecian Formula! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, on going gray! Oh, those silvery locks, at too young an age – is stress to blame? Melissa Harris from the University of Alabama, Birmingham studied how stress

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Windy Warming

Windmills taking the wind out of your sails? This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. More and more cities around the world are committing to renewable energy. Coal plants produce carbon dioxide which can lead to global warming. But other options aren’t perfect either! Meet Lee

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Alien Limbs

Coming soon… “The Leg from Outer Space!” This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science, and Alien Limb Syndrome! Patients with this condition describe feeling as if their arms and legs have a mind of their own. They’ll “scratch an itch” that doesn’t exist, or reach for

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Counting Your Hens

Don’t count your HENS before they’re hatched!  This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. In 2015, the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” was added to the official Swedish dictionary. In Swedish that could mean any person, regardless of gender! The word has been in widespread use there since

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Web Designers

Welcome to the world-wide SPIDER web! This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science. Spiders – love ‘em or hate ’em, we can all appreciate their intricate web designs. Ever notice that webs have similar patterns? It’s as if they were created by the SAME master architect!

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