Right handedness, and genes for hairiness

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... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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 revealing about the way weight gain affects food-related recall... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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. Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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 children? Join Dr Chris Smith for a look at some of eLife's latest leading papers... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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 optimal for best brian health, and the role of the immune system in the ageing ovary... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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, how kingfishers come by their plumage patterns, and the evolution of spider venom genes. Join Dr Chris Smith for a look inside the science at eLife... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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 about dinosaurs, and how taking a leaf out of "doughnut economics" can help academics combat the climate crisis... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website

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 mitochondria... Get the references and the transcripts for this programme from the Naked Scientists website