Your Smile Lights Up Your Dog’s Brain

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.

A calm voice spoke inside a healthy woman's head, insisting she had a brain tumour — then a scan proved it right. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Lino Saubolle unpack a baffling real medical case and the hidden power of the human brain. The post Her Brain Told Her She Was Dying — and It Was Right appeared first on StarQuest Media.

Some days everything clicks. Other days your brain won't cooperate. A University of Toronto study traces that gap to daily shifts in mental sharpness. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Lino Saubolle break down the science. The post Why Some Days You’re Unstoppable (And Others You Can’t Move) appeared first on StarQuest Media.

A kea parrot with no upper beak shouldn't be able to fight, groom, or lead. Bruce does all three, and better than any intact bird in his group. Caroline Knight, Lino Saubolle, and Lindsay Sant on the science of radical adaptation. The post No Beak, No Problem: Meet Bruce the Champion Kea appeared first on StarQuest Media.

For the first time since 1972, humans left low Earth orbit and headed to the moon. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Lino Saubolle unpack the Artemis II mission: the crew, the records, and yes — the toilet. The post One Giant Leap (Again): The Science of Artemis II appeared first on StarQuest Media.