You know, Treebeard, the wise tree in the Lord of the Rings, or the disgruntled apple trees in the Wizard of Oz?

We've always imagined trees could talk, but maybe that's exactly the best kept secret in the natural world.

The trees actually communicate with one another in ways we're only just beginning to understand.

Recent discoveries reveal there's a sophisticated network of fungal threads beneath the forest floor

that connects trees and allows them to send messages and resources to one another.

We'll talk with Dr. Suzanne Samard on this fascinating topic.

And later, researchers recently claimed that they're able to regrow lost cartilage.

It could be a major moment for those of us with osteoarthritis, so we'll get into that as well. My name is Dr. Samantha

Amin, and welcome to Curiosity Weekly. In the quiet Austrian pastures, Dr. Antonio Usuno

Mascaro, an animal welfare researcher, is studying a new animal that has

captivated the scientific community, a pet cow. This is Veronica. She's 13 years old and lives

in the southern countryside of Austria. Veronica made headlines in January 2026 for learning to use a tool.

It all started about a decade ago when a baker in southern Austria noticed that Veronica

was doing something unusual. She was brandishing a stick in her mouth to scratch an

edge. Over the years, she started doing it with all sorts of objects, from brooms to rakes.

So Asuna Mascaro and team from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, decided to put

the sweet girl to the test. They presented her with a regular deck broom and wanted to see how

she'd use it to determine whether she was using it randomly or with purpose. They recorded 76 instances

of Veronica using the tool over multiple sessions. She'd hold the broom in her mouth, using her tongue

to lift and position it, then clamp down her teeth for a stable grip so she could get to

scratching. And scratch she did, using the broom-turned-back scratcher

on the harder-to-reach lower half of her body.

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