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

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

In this episode, why approaches to cancer care need a pro-active approach in future, the opportunities arising for the cancer vaccine space, competency-based medical training, the environmental costs of losing large animals, and why water resilience needs careful planning now... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month, evidence that the microbiome is controlling blood pressure - so will we treat hypertension with probiotics in future? Also, plastic is everywhere and an urgent environmental threat, but is the public aware, or do they care? We also consider the economics of animal extinction and species conservation, the price we pay for water, and the role of the "blue carbon" in keeping CO2 in check... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

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. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A problem that's been puzzling scientists for decades is the way our bodies recognise cold stimuli, and researchers at the University of Michigan have finally got to the bottom of it. They've identified the protein GluK2 acts as a sensor in our bodies for cold temperatures, and Sannia Farrukh has been finding out more... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

This month the connections that human inhabitants have to the coast, why we're still in the middle of a worsening extinction crisis despite international laws and treaties designed to protect nature, the promise of pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine, the plastic pollution problem and how to tackle it, and why water management in the face of a changing climate needs more than just a single solution. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

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... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists