The eLife Podcast
Episodes
Moths hear plants, and what fingerprints do for touch
28 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, how kangaroos alter their postures to store more energy in their Achilles tendons and boost movement efficiency, the moths that make ...
Nocebos, and why the eyes of some species stay shut at birth
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month, compelling evidence for why some species keep their eyes closed for sometimes several weeks after birth, scientists prove that the "nocebo...
Ants doing gene therapy, and tadpole microbiomes
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month, as the eLife Podcast hits its century, we hear how getting frog dads to cross-foster tadpoles has revealed the way in which some frogs com...
Finland's giant virus, and monkeys take care of their teeth
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ho...
Frog toxicity, and what a year's schooling does to the brain
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 inf...
Hollywood helps brain scientists probe thoughts
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month, how films are helping neuroscientists link brain activity patterns to specific thought processes, a breakthrough in managing opiate overdo...
Evolving flu, and the desert decomposition conundrum
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Predicting how influenza viruses will evolve, how deserts decompose matter despite the dry, what worms are revealing about a gene linked to autism, an...
Cancer mood control, and birth products blocking pain
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, signs that cancers communicate with the brain to alter mood, why antibodies are unreliable in research, evidence that social training can ...
Vampire bacteria, "hangry" males, and ants using moonlight
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, Chris Smith hears how blood-thirsty bacteria sniff out wounds to trigger infections, how ants navigate at night, how male and female brain...
How termites build their nests, and drivers of new diseases
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, how human encroachment and conflict on nature drives emerging diseases, the role of "stigmergy" in guiding the nest-building feats of term...
Hibernation, Ketamine and Aphantasia
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, how animals hibernate and evidence that muscle myosin makes its own heat in the cold, brain scans to reveal how ketamine relieves resistan...
Apes reveal language origins, and being dyslexic in science
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 th...
Bees can't taste pesticides, and how albatrosses get aloft
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 comm...
Cold haemoglobin, and teaching old dogs new ethics
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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, wome...
How many friends for best brain health?
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Social media and febrile fish
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Ancient Genes and Trust in New Tech
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the genetic variants inherited from millions of years back that protect from disease but can cause illnesses; also, signs that we trust hu...
Right handedness, and genes for hairiness
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Rebuilding Dinosaurs and Stress from Siblings
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ability to recreate dinosaurs inside computers means the true nature of the spinosaurus can now be uncovered, what the Afro Barometer reveals abou...
Babies cry in utero, and pushing preprints
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, what ultrasound scans are revealing about how primates learn to cry before birth, the new imaging technique highlighting brain structural ...
Urban microbiomes, and crushed cancers
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
Does Vaping Inflame the Brain?
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ta...
Animal handedness, diabetes and dinosaurs
06 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, diabetes and the body clock, the antibodies we raise to Covid-19 vaccines versus infection, dinosaurs armoured like tanks, baboons catchin...
Human birth trigger genes, and clam cancer
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the genes linked to human birth onset, signs hunter gatherers already had a taste for cereals before farming came along, how sunflowers ba...
Sediba's backbone, and antibacterial bacteria
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, the bones missing from Australopithecus sediba's backbone are uncovered, but what do they reveal about this ancient hominid's posture? Als...
Can Corals Resist Bleaching?
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Does stress turn your hair grey?
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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, w...
The widowhood effect, and clapped out baboons
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 p...
Motherless gorillas and how hummingbirds hum
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month: how hummingbirds hum, how elephants evolved anti-cancer genes so they can sustain big bodies, gorillas that grow up without their mothers,...
Psychedelic drugs and river water bugs
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month: the first self-blinded study into microdosing psychedelics, using DNA analysis to understand what bacteria is in river water, and what's t...
Egyptian baboons and overlooked COVID genes
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month: how a dose of magnesium can improve long-term memory, scientists scrutinise the world's sourdough microbes, and evidence that we're overlo...
Sea slugs and anti-sickness drugs
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 rece...
AI for infertility, and scar-free healing
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month we hear about an artificial intelligence (AI) breakthrough for infertility, how ketamine can mimic some of the decision-making difficulties...
Prostate cancer prediction and bonobo culture
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This month on the eLife podcast, artificial intelligence reveals a better test for prostate cancer, is the brain stuffed with neuronal stem cells, bon...
Ears, hearts, and halting Huntington's
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 halti...
Sugar on the brain, HIV, and science sex bias
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Sparrows, cavefish and fighting fungus
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Why do bats carry so many dread diseases?
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 r...
The plants with three parents
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 dat...
Zika immunity and falling body temperatures
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 tr...
Tardigrades and the Ten Commandments
20 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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 tr...
How many new mutations from Mum and Dad?
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, join Chris Smith to hear how sleep deprivation sends your endocannabinoids skyrocketing and triggers a tendency to binge, how many new gen...
Astronauts, geese and realistic retinas
26 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, doctors doing U-turns: the medical practices without much evidence to prop them up, wind-tunnel experiments reveal how geese fly at extrem...
Brain basis of blindsight
09 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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, ad...
Malaria and Myrmecophiles
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month, stunning fossil remains of a beetle that evolved to exploit ants and appeared rapidly after ants became social themselves, how inflammatio...
Vaccines and viral swarms
26 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How the brain handles sensations from amputated body parts, evidence that government vaccination campaigns to target measles really work, the heel-pri...
Weaponised insulin
29 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The shellfish that release insulin into the water to catch fish, brain activity patterns that predict future addictions, how to do gene drive experime...
Dodgy cells and big neurons
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
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, se...
Insect Farmers and oxytocin
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This month in the eLife Podcast, how scientists got oestrogen signalling all wrong in breast cancer, fungus-farming ants and their microbial helpers, ...
Fossil Flowers, and Fur Seal Parasites
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 fou...
Transmissible Tumours and LSD Receptors
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The wildlife impact of urban sprawl, how climate change will affect the distribution of mosquito-borne outbreaks, Devil Facial Tumour Disease 2, how L...
Inside Your Microbiome
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 b...
Pigeon patterning and stiff lungs
19 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Bugs and Drugs, and Chocolate Cake
03 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
BatNav, TB and Aspirin
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this eLife Podcast, echolocation in bats, chemical probes for open science, using aspirin to manage TB meningitis, brain topography, and combining ...
Robin Hood and Autism
27 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Ant Undertakers and the Human Cell Atlas
26 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we hear about disease control in insects, placental development, post-traumatic stress disorder, the mission to create a human cell a...
Sperm Competitions
16 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we hear about self-esteem, a new genus of extinct horse, the future of biological engineering, tracking mosquitoes with mobile phones...
Is science getting harder to understand?
22 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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...
eLife at Five
23 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode we hear about photosynthesis, forensics, peer review, and the past, present and future of eLife. Get the references and the tr...
Fish Recognise Fish Faces
10 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife Podcast, biomarkers for epilepsy, how fish can recognise faces, insect anti-anti aphrodisiacs, and why striving for novel...
Glowing Squid, and Electric Anxiety
17 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Hear about the sea urchin immune system, symbiotic bacteria in squid, anxiety and a training course to promote collaboration between scientists. Get t...
Spotlight on tropical diseases
13 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of the eLife Podcast, we discuss diseases common in tropical countries including tuberculosis, Zika, malaria and schistosomias...
Boosting your Intellect
27 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This month in the eLife podcast, how yeast makes an important drug from a plant root, why worms want to kill of males, and are we gender neutral whe...
How human handedness happens
30 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode we hear about helping people with paralysis to communicate, how exposing mice to nicotine can affect their sons, scaffold-building par...
Epilepsy and Sushi
21 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
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 scie...
Footprints of the past
26 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Unravelling the 6-million-year-long story of where we came from is a tricky business because palaeontologists have to rely on scarce, precious fossil ...
Man's First Footsteps
15 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about fossil footprints, taking medical research to the clinic, sleepy flies, team-working ants and diver...
Why don't Elephants get Cancer?
15 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about the first heartbeat, African sleeping sickness, elephant genetics, the rubber hand illusion and wom...
Proteins from Fossils
06 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about ancient proteins, aging mice, mosquito nets, resourceful plants and cocktail party conversations. G...
Who is tallest?
29 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about human height, fish joints, colour vision, chimpanzees using tools and open science. Get the referen...
Seeing pain in the brain
29 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about drug production, early career researchers, honeybees, human migrations and pain. Get the references...
Microbiome mind control, epilepsy and parastic worms
24 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about parasitic worms, dog tumours, epilepsy, DNA sequencing classes and social behaviour in mice. Get th...
From antibiotic resistance to artificial fingertips
23 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about aging, artificial fingertips, ancient DNA, antibiotic resistance and dengue fever. Get the referenc...
Monkeys that gamble
09 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about midnight snacking, X-ray imaging of fossils, hummingbirds, monkeys gambling and axolotls regenerati...
Mosquitoes home in on heat
23 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Heat-seeking behaviour in mosquitoes, mass spawning in coral reefs, social organization in ants, fear in rats and tissue regeneration in newts go unde...
Sleep and Reward Boost Recall
11 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about deep-sea bacteria, cigarette smoke and lung disease, antibiotic resistance, unconscious perception...
Escaping from Predators
01 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about Parkinson's Disease, depression, chickenpox, bats, beetles and how small prey can escape larger pre...
Homo naledi
09 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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-pre...
Magnetic Nerve Cells
26 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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 referenc...
Tinnitus and Mouse Ultrasound
23 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Tinnitus, hyperacusis, salamanders, chemical harpoons and the role of ultrasound and song in the mating rituals of mice and flies go under the microco...
Do newborns feel pain?
19 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about echolocation, bacteriophages, babies and pain, a neural code for food abundance, and how zebrafish ...
Herpes vaccine, and flies with brain damage
16 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about herpes, breweries, model organisms, social interactions in rats and traumatic brain injuries in fli...
TB, and a Handshake
09 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Stress, fertility and remote-controlled sperm
06 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about controlling sperm by optogenetics, hibernation, body clocks, enzyme structure, and a way to overcom...
Synthetic cells, antivirals and sex pheromones
23 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
n this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about reproducibility, drug resistance, cells without walls, gene transfer, interspecies signalling, and s...
Flu, Cannabis and HIV
31 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cost of corruption, and Ebola
29 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about the spread of the Ebola virus, the financial costs of research misconduct, aging in yeast, grooming...
Making blind mice see and mosquitoes resistant to malaria
30 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about using photographs to diagnose rare genetic disorders, an unexpected benefit of exercise, hybridizin...
Why we don't (often) bite our tongues
10 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast, the neuroscience of chewing, African sleeping sickness, skin cancer, and an ancient protein complex called TSET....
Pain, gene therapy, and regenerating worms
29 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about neuropathic pain, gene therapy, insulin production, ageing in worms, and how flatworms grow new bod...
Radiation, Anti-aphrodisiacs and Glowing Squid
30 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we hear about the mating habits of flies, radiation resistance in bacteria, how insects learned to smell, and the...
Redeye, Spies and Bacteria
28 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we learn more about sleep, super Spy chaperones, swimming bacteria, orphan genes and the neuroscience of birdsong...
Rats won't rat on rats
31 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we discuss ants, rats, sharks and rays, and the pathogen that causes corn smut in maize. Get the references and t...
Sedatives, Maths and Evolution
06 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife Podcast, the growing problem of drug resistance, severe brain damage, sugar versus sweetener, public dilemmas, and the ev...
Bacteria and Rheumatoid Arthritis
29 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the eLife podcast we discuss doing protein crystallography with electrons, the discovery of a receptor for carbon dioxide, new insi...
Human Sperm, Gut Bugs and Decomposition
30 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this issue of the eLife podcast we discuss how chimpanzees use conceptual metaphors, the hyperactivation of spermatozoa, the use of bacteria to est...
Undead Cells
06 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In this issue of the eLife podcast we discuss how flatworms can grow new heads and tails, how photosynthesis has evolved over time, social interaction...
Now hear this!
15 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The cocktail party effect and how the brain decides which sounds to attend to, genes dismissed as dead relics turn out to play significant roles in in...
Plants keep Thyme, cancer drug resistance and clear corneas
15 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
How plants do molecular mathematics to thyme their starch consumption, how cancers evolve resistance to chemotherapy and how to combat it, how the ret...