Episodes

  • Brain-invading bacterium is making fruit flies extra frisky

    Brain-invading bacterium is making fruit flies extra frisky
    May 19 2025
    What if a parasite could rewire your brain - not to harm you, but to make you... more romantic? This week on The Naked Scientists, we're exploring the bizarre world of Wolbachia - a bacterium that turns female fruit flies into mating machines. Marushka Soobben with the story... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    5 mins
  • Speedy, soft robot powered by air alone

    Speedy, soft robot powered by air alone
    May 12 2025
    Using only soft tubes and a continuous stream of air, a team of researchers at AMOLF in Amsterdam have created one of the fastest and simplest soft robots to date. Marushka Soobben with the story... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    6 mins
  • Frog toxicity, and what a year's schooling does to the brain

    Frog toxicity, and what a year's schooling does to the brain
    Apr 24 2025
    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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    35 mins
  • What climate change does to kelp forests

    What climate change does to kelp forests
    Apr 3 2025
    In this episode, how climate change impacts kelp forests, selecting for less animal-friendly variants, refining AI models for better water infrastructure design, classifying extinct marine megafauna and when best to swim with them, the coast consequences of climate change, and why a better understanding of the planet's drylands is critical... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    32 mins
  • Hollywood helps brain scientists probe thoughts

    Hollywood helps brain scientists probe thoughts
    Feb 26 2025
    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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    41 mins
  • Personalised medicine, droughts, and dryland research

    Personalised medicine, droughts, and dryland research
    Dec 24 2024
    Personalised medicine and gene screens for disease, why dinosaurs disappeared, planning for droughts, and new vistas in the drylands arena... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    31 mins
  • 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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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    33 mins