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The eLife Podcast

The eLife Podcast, from eLife, the researcher-led, open access digital publication for outstanding research in life science and biomedicine.
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Episodes

Prostate cancer prediction and bonobo culture

This month on the eLife podcast, artificial intelligence reveals a better test for prostate cancer, is the brain stuffed with neuronal stem cells, bonobos with cultural preferences, and why some insects play "follow my leader"... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Oct 08, 202035 minEp. 68

Ears, hearts, and halting Huntington's

This month on the eLife Podcast we hear about why whale-watching boats are just too noisy, how oily fish combats heart failure, breakthroughs in halting Huntington's disease, and how your wiggling ears can betray your intentions... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Sep 04, 202033 minEp. 67

Sugar on the brain, HIV, and science sex bias

This month on the eLife Podcast we look at how sugar takes away the pleasure of consuming and makes you eat more, we find out what loneliness does to the brain, uncover new insights into how HIV infects females, and explore sex bias in biomedical research... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jun 30, 202036 minEp. 66

Sparrows, cavefish and fighting fungus

This month we explore how genetic plasticity enables sparrows to live alongside us and fish to evolve rapidly to life in caves. We also hear why "Test! Test! Test!" is so critical to safe healthcare provision during the coronavirus pandemic, how a new technique can find drugs that boost the fungal killing power of fluconazole, and how changes in land use have knock-on effects on soil-dwelling invertebrates... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists web...

Jun 01, 202031 minEp. 65

Why do bats carry so many dread diseases?

This month, why screening at airports for Covid19 is unlikely to work, how flight forced bat viruses to become virulent, MRI scans of throat singers reveals how they produce multiple sounds at the same time, and the role that DNA does and does not play in education... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Apr 03, 202030 minEp. 64

The plants with three parents

This month, new hearing tests to spot those likely to struggle with speech in noisy environments, how your DNA is at risk from hacking on a public database, plants with three parents, researchers recreate endometriosis in mice and show that cannabis might be an effective treatment, and the nerve fibres that make us like a cuddle. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Mar 06, 202036 minEp. 63

Zika immunity and falling body temperatures

Have these paralysed patients helped to reveal the brain basis of why we gesticulate when we talk? Also, new insights into how the body clock keeps track of the seasons, signs that immunity to Zika virus wanes with time, why human body temperature is lower than it was 150 years ago, and diversity in science: how can we better hold on to rare talent? Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Feb 06, 202036 minEp. 62

Tardigrades and the Ten Commandments

What accounts for the bomb-proof biology of the tardigrade? How do ants avoid traffic jams? Why thou shalt not abuse statistics in 2020, do badgers transmit bovine TB to cows, and is mental illness on the rise among early-career scientists? Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Dec 20, 201932 minEp. 61

How many new mutations from Mum and Dad?

This month, join Chris Smith to hear how sleep deprivation sends your endocannabinoids skyrocketing and triggers a tendency to binge, how many new genetic mutations you inherit from your parents, the gene for behaviour that turned out to be nothing of the sort, what good and bad learners have in common with youTube influencers, and from online collective whinge to paper in eLife: the careers of newly appointed PIs. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientis...

Oct 31, 201936 minEp. 60

Astronauts, geese and realistic retinas

This month, doctors doing U-turns: the medical practices without much evidence to prop them up, wind-tunnel experiments reveal how geese fly at extreme altitudes, why mating makes bees go blind, stress remodelling the brain's myelin, and what goes on during a stint aboard the International Space Station? Join Chris Smith for a look inside the latest papers in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website...

Sep 26, 201940 minEp. 59

Brain basis of blindsight

This month, the blind monkey that lacks a visual cortex but can still see, the bee-hunting wasps that use a gas cloud to keep harmful fungi at bay, adaptive optics that can image blood vessels of all sizes in the eye, the new field of palaeoshellomics, and how to mix a family with a scientific career... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jul 09, 201934 minEp. 58

Malaria and Myrmecophiles

This month, stunning fossil remains of a beetle that evolved to exploit ants and appeared rapidly after ants became social themselves, how inflammation in early life alters the ability of the nervous system to adapt to changing respiratory demands in adulthood, how DNA can be used to track where people picked up malaria, the researchers drawing up new ways to illustrate science, and meet Mike Eisen, eLife's new Editor-in-Chief... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the...

May 30, 201932 minEp. 57

Vaccines and viral swarms

How the brain handles sensations from amputated body parts, evidence that government vaccination campaigns to target measles really work, the heel-prick blood test at birth that can detect prematurity, testing the reproducibility of science at the level of a whole nation, and the multipartite viruses the spread as an infectious swarm: scientists show that they replicate different parts of the virus in different cells... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Sci...

Apr 26, 201933 minEp. 56

Weaponised insulin

The shellfish that release insulin into the water to catch fish, brain activity patterns that predict future addictions, how to do gene drive experiments safely, and is the first author position gender neutral? Chris Smith talks to leading scientists publishing groundbreaking papers in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Mar 29, 201927 minEp. 55

Dodgy cells and big neurons

Why one in five published papers that use cultured cells may be wrong, the frog that sings underwater without air, genes that make you live longer, seeing evolution through bats' eyes, and do brainier people have bigger brain cells? Join Chris Smith as he talks to the authors of five hard-hitting new papers published in eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Feb 26, 201934 minEp. 54

Insect Farmers and oxytocin

This month in the eLife Podcast, how scientists got oestrogen signalling all wrong in breast cancer, fungus-farming ants and their microbial helpers, how smells influence memory, the tension between Pacific mineral riches and deep-sea species, and how oxytocin boosts bravery... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jan 29, 201936 minEp. 53

Fossil Flowers, and Fur Seal Parasites

In this episode of the eLife Podcast, the nerves with a taste for salt, why fur seal pups succumb to hookworms, the oldest fossilised flowers ever found, the monkey business of chimp personalities, and the 11 million year old flying squirrel foung in a rubbish tip... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Dec 19, 201832 minEp. 52

Transmissible Tumours and LSD Receptors

The wildlife impact of urban sprawl, how climate change will affect the distribution of mosquito-borne outbreaks, Devil Facial Tumour Disease 2, how LSD works in the brain and gender bias in peer review all go under the microscope in this latest episode of the eLife Podcast. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Nov 13, 201834 minEp. 51

Inside Your Microbiome

This special edition of the eLife Podcast marks our 50th episode and we've decided to mark the milestone by focusing on a field that's huge and tiny both at the same time: huge in terms of the rate at which the discipline's growing and the impact it's set to have our lives, and tiny because its subjects are microscopic. It's our microbiome, the community of micro-organisms that live on us and in us and outnumber our own human cells by maybe 50 fold: we're literally passengers in our own bodies, ...

Oct 07, 201832 minEp. 50

Pigeon patterning and stiff lungs

In this episode of the eLife Podcast, we hear about the RNA world, bovine TB, lung fibrosis, and why rock pigeons have different wing patterns... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Aug 19, 201829 minEp. 49

Bugs and Drugs, and Chocolate Cake

In this episode of the eLife Podcast, signs that trees exchange genes over hundreds of kilometres, how our gut bacteria protect us from plant toxins, and new insights into the placebo effect... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jul 03, 201832 minEp. 48

BatNav, TB and Aspirin

In this eLife Podcast, echolocation in bats, chemical probes for open science, using aspirin to manage TB meningitis, brain topography, and combining science and parenthood... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

May 30, 201834 minEp. 47

Robin Hood and Autism

How much of the world's scientific literature now sits in SciHub, we hear why statins might be making diabetes worse, if oxygen did - or didn't - hold back the evolution of multicellular life, the neurological basis of lip-reading, and how the brain can compensate for autism... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Mar 27, 201838 minEp. 46

Ant Undertakers and the Human Cell Atlas

In this episode, we hear about disease control in insects, placental development, post-traumatic stress disorder, the mission to create a human cell atlas and how crickets amplify their song... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Feb 26, 201833 minEp. 45

Sperm Competitions

In this episode, we hear about self-esteem, a new genus of extinct horse, the future of biological engineering, tracking mosquitoes with mobile phones, and how a love rival causes salmon to increase their sperm speed... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jan 16, 201830 minEp. 44

Is science getting harder to understand?

In this episode, we hear about tool use in monkeys, sleep regulation, marsupial placentas, health campaigns and why science papers are so hard to read. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Nov 22, 201730 minEp. 43

eLife at Five

In this special episode we hear about photosynthesis, forensics, peer review, and the past, present and future of eLife. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Oct 23, 201729 minEp. 42

Fish Recognise Fish Faces

In this episode of the eLife Podcast, biomarkers for epilepsy, how fish can recognise faces, insect anti-anti aphrodisiacs, and why striving for novelty may hinder the progress of science... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Sep 10, 201725 minEp. 41

Glowing Squid, and Electric Anxiety

Hear about the sea urchin immune system, symbiotic bacteria in squid, anxiety and a training course to promote collaboration between scientists. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jul 17, 201724 minEp. 40

Spotlight on tropical diseases

In this special episode of the eLife Podcast, we discuss diseases common in tropical countries including tuberculosis, Zika, malaria and schistosomiasis. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

Jun 13, 201729 minEp. 39
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