Episodes

  • Evolving flu, and the desert decomposition conundrum

    Evolving flu, and the desert decomposition conundrum
    Dec 20 2024
    Predicting how influenza viruses will evolve, how deserts decompose matter despite the dry, what worms are revealing about a gene linked to autism, and what makes mice fearful of cat smells. Dr Chris Smith talks to the authors of the latest leading research in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    31 mins
  • Cancer mood control, and birth products blocking pain

    Cancer mood control, and birth products blocking pain
    Nov 1 2024
    This month, signs that cancers communicate with the brain to alter mood, why antibodies are unreliable in research, evidence that social training can cut stress and boost brain volume, and agents derived from birth products that suppress inflammation and kill pain... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    33 mins
  • Vampire bacteria, "hangry" males, and ants using moonlight

    Vampire bacteria, "hangry" males, and ants using moonlight
    Sep 10 2024
    This month, Chris Smith hears how blood-thirsty bacteria sniff out wounds to trigger infections, how ants navigate at night, how male and female brains respond differently to starvation, and inflammation linked to premature labour... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    31 mins
  • How termites build their nests, and drivers of new diseases

    How termites build their nests, and drivers of new diseases
    Jun 18 2024
    This month, how human encroachment and conflict on nature drives emerging diseases, the role of "stigmergy" in guiding the nest-building feats of termites, a project to track infectious abortions in Africa, why people need to speak the same language around neurodiversity, and what fat flies are revealing about the way weight gain affects food-related recall... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    34 mins
  • Hibernation, Ketamine and Aphantasia

    Hibernation, Ketamine and Aphantasia
    Apr 19 2024
    This month, how animals hibernate and evidence that muscle myosin makes its own heat in the cold, brain scans to reveal how ketamine relieves resistant depression, the way the brain changes when animals build a bond, the evolution of flu outbreaks, and how aphantasia affects autobiographical memory. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    38 mins
  • Apes reveal language origins, and being dyslexic in science

    Apes reveal language origins, and being dyslexic in science
    Mar 8 2024
    This month we hear what orangutans can tell us about the origins of human speech, we ask if science making life even harder for dyslexics, where do the scientists we train end up and do they stay in science, and new insights into the songs whales sing underwater... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    36 mins
  • Bees can't taste pesticides, and how albatrosses get aloft

    Bees can't taste pesticides, and how albatrosses get aloft
    Nov 30 2023
    In the eLife Podcast this month, signs that bees are oblivious to pesticides in nectar, sea anemone stinging strategies, a new means of cell-cell communication to share growth factors and other signals, how plants make a comeback when ice sheets retreat, and how the world's biggest bird uses wind and waves to good effect to minimise the costs of takeoff... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    35 mins
  • Cold haemoglobin, and teaching old dogs new ethics

    Cold haemoglobin, and teaching old dogs new ethics
    Sep 29 2023
    This month, how an extinct marine mammal made its haemoglobin work in the cold, how does learning compassion change the shape of the human brain, women publishing cautiously, how populations evolve to social distance in disease conditions, and can biochemical clocks accurately track ageing in children? Join Dr Chris Smith for a look at some of eLife's latest leading papers... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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    36 mins