The Friday Five covers five stories in research that you may have missed this week. There are plenty of controversies and troubling ethical issues in science – and we get into many of them in our online magazine – but this news roundup focuses on scientific creativity and progress to give you a therapeutic dose of inspiration headed into the weekend.

Here are the promising studies covered in this week's Friday Five:

- A new "polypill" regimen for prevent second heart attacks
- The best kind of plant for sucking toxins out of the air
- Diamonds, explosions and invisible medicine
- How to brew up a cancer drug in the lab
- AI knows if you have Parkinson's before doctors do

The honorable mention for this week's Friday Five: blue light could be having a much bigger effect than we thought.

Making Sense of Science features interviews with leading medical and scientific experts about the latest developments in health innovation and the big ethical and social questions they raise. The podcast is hosted by science journalist Matt Fuchs