PODCAST · science
The eLife Podcast
by Dr Chris Smith
The eLife Podcast: outstanding research in life science and biomedicine.
Episodes
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Individuality, and non-monogamy boosts chickadee cognition
In this episode, the origins of our individuality, how synaesthetes' pupil size changes just by thinking of a colour, female chickadees expand the spectrum of cognitive abilities through non-monogamy, do any species thrive in urban settings, and the switch to DNA organisation that accompanies...
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Gorilla sperm, and subversive gambling machines
This time, macho male gorillas trade stature for sperm count, how gambling machines use sound and light to take the sting out of losing, whether babies are born hard-wired to dance, the way bird eggs are adapted to altitude, and the effect of a fever on the stickiness of malaria-infected blood...
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Genetic cancer sensors, and why crabs walk sideways
This month, a genetic sensor to self-destruct cancer cells, what fish with a gene mutation are revealing about brain blood vessel disease, evidence that hallucinogens like psilocybin put brain cells into a more plastic state to loosen the grip of depression, a new technique to spot the population...
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How termites build their nests, and drivers of new diseases
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...
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Cold haemoglobin, and teaching old dogs new ethics
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...
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How many friends for best brain health?
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...
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Social media and febrile fish
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…
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Ancient Genes and Trust in New Tech
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...
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Right handedness, and genes for hairiness
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...
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Rebuilding Dinosaurs and Stress from Siblings
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...
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Babies cry in utero, and pushing preprints
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…
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Urban microbiomes, and crushed cancers
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...
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Does Vaping Inflame the Brain?
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...
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Animal handedness, diabetes and dinosaurs
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...
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Human birth trigger genes, and clam cancer
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...
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Sediba's backbone, and antibacterial bacteria
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…
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Can Corals Resist Bleaching?
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...
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Does stress turn your hair grey?
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...
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The widowhood effect, and clapped out baboons
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...
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Psychedelic drugs and river water bugs
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...
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Egyptian baboons and overlooked COVID genes
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...
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Sea slugs and anti-sickness drugs
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…
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AI for infertility, and scar-free healing
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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...…
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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...
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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...
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Epilepsy and Sushi
In this episode we hear about epilepsy, the sushi-belt model of transport in neurons, a mother in ancient Troy, the Amazon rainforest and bias in scientific reporting. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Escaping from Predators
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about Parkinson's Disease, depression, chickenpox, bats, beetles and how small prey can escape larger predators. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Homo naledi
Where we came from is, arguably, one of the most important questions facing mankind. This week the story has become even more intriguing: the well-preserved remains of 15 individuals from a new species of human ancestor, called Homo naledi, have been unveiled by scientists in South Africa. The…
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Magnetic Nerve Cells
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about cancer, dengue fever, sperm DNA and neurons that are sensitive to magnetic fields. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Tinnitus and Mouse Ultrasound
Tinnitus, hyperacusis, salamanders, chemical harpoons and the role of ultrasound and song in the mating rituals of mice and flies go under the microcope in this edition of the eLife Podcast. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Do newborns feel pain?
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about echolocation, bacteriophages, babies and pain, a neural code for food abundance, and how zebrafish can make their own sunscreen. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Herpes vaccine, and flies with brain damage
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about herpes, breweries, model organisms, social interactions in rats and traumatic brain injuries in flies. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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TB, and a Handshake
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about TB, HIV, social behaviour in ants, genetics in baboons and a surprising twist to the handshake. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Stress, fertility and remote-controlled sperm
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about controlling sperm by optogenetics, hibernation, body clocks, enzyme structure, and a way to overcome stress-induced infertility. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Synthetic cells, antivirals and sex pheromones
n this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about reproducibility, drug resistance, cells without walls, gene transfer, interspecies signalling, and stem cells. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Flu, Cannabis and HIV
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about influenza pandemics, eating too much, cannabis and the brain, HIV cure research, and the evolution of sea squirts... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The eLife Podcast have?
The eLife Podcast currently has 104 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The eLife Podcast about?
The eLife Podcast: outstanding research in life science and biomedicine.
How often does The eLife Podcast release new episodes?
The eLife Podcast publishes regularly with 104 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The eLife Podcast?
You can listen to The eLife Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The eLife Podcast?
The eLife Podcast is created and hosted by Dr Chris Smith.
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