A stray kitten raised on rice and noodles turned out to be a brand-new wild cat species. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle on the tilcayo of Bolivia's cloud forest and the DNA study that found five tiger cats where one was assumed.

The post Meet the Tilcayo appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Not all roads led to Rome. Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle look at new research built on Itiner-e, the biggest map of Roman roads ever made, and the three myths it busts. Plus listeners share their citizen-science stories.

The post Not All Roads Lead to Rome appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Smile at your dog, and its brain may register a reward. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Lino Saubolle unpack a new brain-scan study showing dogs' brains separate happy faces from sad, fearful, and angry ones.

The post Your Smile Lights Up Your Dog’s Brain appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Announcing Holy Troublemakers, a new podcast from StarQuest. In this weekly podcast host Dom Bettinelli will introduce you to the difficult people who built the Catholic Church. From mystics who argued with popes to missionaries who walked into places nobody sane would go, every episode tells one of their stories.

The post Announcing Holy Troublemakers appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Scientists can't be everywhere. Volunteers with smartphones are catching invasive species, rescuing 19th-century weather logs, and flagging new objects in the night sky. Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle on becoming a citizen scientist.

The post Scientists Can’t Be Everywhere — So They Need You appeared first on StarQuest Media.

There's real sugar drifting between the stars, 26,000 light years out, and it's the same kind that turns up in raspberries. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle on the first true sugar ever found in space.

The post Sugar Between the Stars appeared first on StarQuest Media.

A black fungus that eats radiation? Found in the ruins of Chernobyl, it could shield astronauts headed to Mars. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Dom Bettinelli unpack radiosynthesis and the living space shield it inspired.

The post The Chernobyl Fungus That Eats Radiation appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Sixty thousand years before modern dentistry, a Neanderthal endured a 35-minute stone-tool drilling procedure — no anesthesia — and survived. Caroline Knight explains what a 59,000-year-old infected molar reveals about prehistoric medicine.

The post The First Dentist Was a Neanderthal appeared first on StarQuest Media.