In the eLife podcast, a university compost heap has turned up Finland's first documented "giant virus". Also, why monkeys de-sand their supper, and how learning more languages actually makes brain tissue thinner. Then, the link between sugar and neonatal sepsis, and how a cancer controls its hydra host by bestowing it with extra tentacles... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Jun 19, 2025•39 min•Ep. 98
What is the impact of an extra year at school on the brain? Also, how poison dart frogs come by their toxins, using movies to track the developing infant nervous system, the insect-spread bacterial plant parasite that is a mastermind of matchmaking, and a new cancer tool to link disease with the best drugs. Chris Smith takes a look at some of the most powerful papers out this month in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Apr 24, 2025•35 min•Ep. 97
This month, how films are helping neuroscientists link brain activity patterns to specific thought processes, a breakthrough in managing opiate overdose, a technique to study animal teamwork, extracting more information from brain scan data, and how childhood adversity blunts later fear responses... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Feb 26, 2025•41 min•Ep. 96
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
Dec 20, 2024•31 min•Ep. 95
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
Nov 01, 2024•33 min•Ep. 94
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
Sep 10, 2024•31 min•Ep. 93
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...
Jun 18, 2024•34 min•Ep. 92
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
Apr 19, 2024•38 min•Ep. 91
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
Mar 08, 2024•36 min•Ep. 90
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...
Nov 30, 2023•35 min•Ep. 89
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...
Sep 29, 2023•36 min•Ep. 88
This month join host Dr Chris Smith to hear how a nuclear power station provides the opportunity to test theories of the effects of global warming on how fish grow, evidence that personalised medicines have an added placebo effect, the genes for skin colour and skin cancer, why five friends is optimal for best brian health, and the role of the immune system in the ageing ovary... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Jul 31, 2023•31 min•Ep. 87
This month we look at a method to raise the bar on the quality and trustworthiness of information shared over social media networks, how fish running a fever heal from infection faster, what miniature bat backpacks can reveal about the eating and hunting habits of our flying mammalian cousins, how kingfishers come by their plumage patterns, and the evolution of spider venom genes. Join Dr Chris Smith for a look inside the science at eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this progra...
Jun 06, 2023•37 min•Ep. 86
This month, the genetic variants inherited from millions of years back that protect from disease but can cause illnesses; also, signs that we trust human-sourced information more than what a computer might say, how the whiff of a female can make some mice live longer, what bird's eggs can tell us about dinosaurs, and how taking a leaf out of "doughnut economics" can help academics combat the climate crisis... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists web...
Apr 11, 2023•39 min•Ep. 85
Why are 90% of humans right handed and where did we get this from; genes for how - and where - hair grows; the intriguing timing behind how sunflowers flower; how the microbiome of the bee weaponises dietary toxins to deal with parasites, and a connection emerges between personality type and mitochondria... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Mar 01, 2023•37 min•Ep. 84
The ability to recreate dinosaurs inside computers means the true nature of the spinosaurus can now be uncovered, what the Afro Barometer reveals about the potential to use mobile phones to deliver remote health interventions, is intercropping being held back by using the wrong seeds, and signs that firstborns suffer seven months of stress when a baby brother or sister comes along, in bonobos at least. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Dec 15, 2022•30 min•Ep. 83
This month, what ultrasound scans are revealing about how primates learn to cry before birth, the new imaging technique highlighting brain structural changes linked to speech and language impairments, why eLife is breaking the publishing mould to prioritise the preprint in future, and how evolution turn a single lung into a pair... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Nov 11, 2022•33 min•Ep. 82
This month, what happens to the microbiomes of wild animals when they share cities with humans, how being crushed in a cancer makes metastatic cells more malign, a genetic tool to uncover when populations merged back in history, how mating affects the moth sense of smell, and why Africa offers a wealth of research opportunities for the neuroscience community... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Sep 16, 2022•32 min•Ep. 81
Signs that some vapes inflame the brain and other organs, how a whiff of CO2 puts mosquitoes into feeding mode, how long, at present rates, it will take before science reaches gender parity, and how babies get their vitamin D. Chris Smith looks inside some of the latest papers in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Jul 04, 2022•29 min•Ep. 80
This month, diabetes and the body clock, the antibodies we raise to Covid-19 vaccines versus infection, dinosaurs armoured like tanks, baboons catching up on sleep, and how language evolution goes hand in hand with handedness... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
May 06, 2022•36 min•Ep. 79
This month, the genes linked to human birth onset, signs hunter gatherers already had a taste for cereals before farming came along, how sunflowers balance UV protection, aridity resistance and attractiveness to pollinators, a contagious cancer that can jump the species barrier, and inside the eLife Ambassador Programme... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Mar 17, 2022•37 min•Ep. 78
This month, the bones missing from Australopithecus sediba's backbone are uncovered, but what do they reveal about this ancient hominid's posture? Also, why a link to the nervous system is crucial for salamander limb regeneration, the bacteria that can treat bacterial infections, the social stomach in ant colonies, and even old worms can combat the ageing process... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Feb 07, 2022•38 min•Ep. 77
This month, corals that can resist bleaching, signs that the human immune system went up a gear about 8000 years ago, documenting plant cells with an ambitious initiative to generate an atlas all the cell types in all types of plants, new insights into the science of the hug hormone oxytocin, and how deleterious genes hold up the evolution of healthy genes too... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Dec 14, 2021•34 min•Ep. 76
This month, mobile phones are an excellent proxy to test for Covid-19, stress and hair going grey, signs that junk food inflammes the immune system, what makes rats want to help other rats, and the emerging infections in South America linked to conquest and the slave trade. Dr Chris Smith takes a look at more of the top science publishing in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Oct 18, 2021•34 min•Ep. 75
This month, male baboons pay a high ageing price for climbing the social ladder, evidence for the reality of the widowhood effect whereby breaking a pair-bond provokes cancer growth, a new way to track where vaccine antigens go in the body, an integrated model for Alzheimer's Disease, and better ways to predict pain and analgesia in newborns... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Jun 30, 2021•35 min•Ep. 74
This month: how hummingbirds hum, how elephants evolved anti-cancer genes so they can sustain big bodies, gorillas that grow up without their mothers, and why deforestation causes peaks and then troughs in malaria cases... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
May 28, 2021•27 min•Ep. 73
This month: the first self-blinded study into microdosing psychedelics, using DNA analysis to understand what bacteria is in river water, and what's the evidence for parasites preventing inflammatory diseases? Plus, comparing different methods for evaluating your cellular age, and an analysis of non-inclusive language used in life sciences journals... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...
Apr 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 72
This month: how a dose of magnesium can improve long-term memory, scientists scrutinise the world's sourdough microbes, and evidence that we're overlooking important COVID-relevant genes. Plus, shark behaviour in low oxygen environments, and using baboon mummies to solve a mystery of ancient times... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Feb 23, 2021•36 min•Ep. 71
This month we hear about the animals that turn their dinner into solar panels, the first images of anti-nausea drug molecules engaging with their receptors, and what thousands of you told eLife about the people who support their colleagues at work. Plus, exercise stops cancer cells from growing and how we hold onto bad food memories... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Dec 17, 2020•33 min•Ep. 70
This month we hear about an artificial intelligence (AI) breakthrough for infertility, how ketamine can mimic some of the decision-making difficulties seen in schizophrenia, a new device to observe and document mosquito feeding behaviour, the key to scar-free wound healing, and how open is open access publishing at the moment? Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
Nov 13, 2020•31 min•Ep. 69
