Biology podcasts

Cell researcher and author Katharina Vestre joins Gaute Einevoll for a Norwegian-language conversation about the cells that build the human body. They explore how diverse cells, from muscle fibres to red blood cells, cooperate while sharing a common organisation of membranes and organelles. The discussion considers how that internal machinery allows cells to survive, perform specialised functions and divide, drawing on Vestre’s book about cellular life.

Hosted by Gaute Einevoll

This episode examines the history of genetics and the Genetics Society’s relationship with the eugenics movement. The discussion draws on an article investigating how ideas about heredity became entangled with the discredited programme of applying selective breeding to human populations. It invites listeners to consider the scientific community’s own history and the responsibilities attached to genetic research.

Hosted by Mike Pointer

Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove and Brianne Barker discuss a newly identified mechanism for RNA-guided DNA recognition and genetic control that may predate CRISPR pathways. They also examine research proposing that features of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology could have originated as a host response to infection in the brain, including evidence concerning phosphorylated tau and herpesvirus activity. The episode connects ancient molecular recognition mechanisms with questions about antiviral defence.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove

Vincent Racaniello speaks with Roberto Cattaneo and Kalpana Yadav at the 2026 American Society for Virology meeting about measles persistence in the brain. They discuss selection for highly fusogenic viral variants when usual measles receptors are absent, neuron-to-neuron spread, and the development of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare, fatal delayed complication of measles infection.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello

Rafael Rosengarten and BioPharmaTrend co-founder Andrii Buvailo discuss how to assess progress in AI-assisted drug discovery. They trace the move from individual computational tasks to connected research workflows and question whether counting AI-associated drug candidates captures the technology’s value. Topics include research productivity, trial design, biomarkers, human expertise and the use of patient-derived data, organoids and other representative biological systems to improve translation. The conversation also considers why AI has become polarising and how specialised models may fit into pharmaceutical research.

Paul Bieniasz joins Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove and Kathy Spindler to discuss his laboratory’s research on coronavirus genetic variation. The conversation examines how the NSP15 nuclease cuts viral RNA into short pieces that can be reinserted elsewhere, producing insertion mutations and new furin-cleavage sites at the spike S1/S2 boundary. The episode links the underlying preprint and includes listener correspondence and weekly selections.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove

Susanne Renner and Alan Cohen reflect on Bob Ricklefs’s contributions to ecology and evolutionary biology. The discussion considers biogeography, life-history research and the value of sustained, careful scientific work. Ricklefs is the subject of the tribute, rather than a participant in this recording.

Vincent Racaniello, Kathy Spindler and Brianne Barker discuss research using generative AI to design complete bacteriophage genomes, including reported viable phages active against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They also examine a study linking recombinant shingles vaccination with lower cardiovascular-event risk. The discussion connects genome modelling, experimental virology and vaccine research, alongside listener letters and weekly selections.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Brianne Barker

David George Haskell discusses the evolution and ecological importance of flowering plants. The conversation follows the innovations that enabled their diversification and their relationships with animals and ecosystems.

Hosted by Clayton Glasgow

The hosts discuss nitrogen fixation in a marine alga and the evidence for a nitrogen-fixing organelle. Related topics include plastic pollution, antimicrobial resistance and the rumen microbiome. The episode links microbial evolution and physiology with marine nutrient cycling.

Hosted by Vincent Racaniello, Michael Schmidt

Nature journalists discuss a chemical route that converts PVC waste into motor lubricant and engineered yeast that produces a potential cancer drug.

Andrew Huberman and immunologist Max Krummel discuss immune function, sleep, emotions, memory, the thymus, autoimmunity, cancer and immunization.

This eLife episode explores trade-offs between body size and sperm production in gorillas, fever-driven changes in malaria-infected cells, the neuroscience of gambling machines, whether infants are predisposed to dance, and high-altitude adaptations in bird eggs.

Nature staff discuss a large survey of insect diversity in the Amazon and unusual orca behavior captured on video involving a sunfish.

Nature editors discuss nearly 400 structures that reveal the scale of the Aquiry civilization and tiny fossils of an early squid ancestor.

Paul Middlebrooks and Johannes Jaeger discuss agency in living systems, relevance realization, consciousness, energy efficiency and why biological organisms differ from artificial agents.

Daniel Simberloff discusses biological invasions, ecological theory and evidence from field experiments. The conversation explores how introduced species alter communities and ecosystems, and how long-running research informs conservation and management decisions.

Nachum Ulanovsky discusses studying nervous systems during natural behaviour. The conversation considers what researchers gain from observing animals in ecologically meaningful conditions and how new methods can connect neuroscience with evolution and ecology.

Markus Covert discusses comprehensive bacterial cell simulations and what whole-cell modelling could contribute to future studies of neurons.

A vintage discussion with Johnjoe McFadden about possible quantum contributions to biological processes, republished as episode 13 of this series.