Show Me the Science with Luke O'Neill

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O'Neill talks about the science of saliva! This is a listener request from Sarah from Kerry. 

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O'Neill talks about a recent cancer conference in Chicago, where they announced some remarkable new results...

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of wearables, from smart watches to smart rings. Are they useful to people overall?

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of how animals navigate and find their way home. In particular, pigeons, and how the immune system helps them to navigate.

This week on Show Me the Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of Ozempic, Mounjaro, GLP 1 and more broadly, the science of Peptides.

This week on Show Me the Science, Luke O'Neill takes a look at the Ebola virus and the current outbreak happening in Africa. The current outbreak is being caused by the Bundibugyo virus. The last outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus was in 2012. What are the symptoms? Is there a vaccine? And is there a risk of the virus coming to Europe?

The VHI Women's Mini Marathon is on this week, and on this episode of Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of Exercise. Why is exercise good for us? What are the current guidelines? Is housework as good as a run for your heart? The impact on the brain after exercising. And how exercise can benefit your mental health.

This week on Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of the gut microbiome, how the health of your gut is important for your health overall and new findings on bacteria and cancers.

This week on Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of saunas. How does taking a sauna benefit your health and mood, and exactly how much time should you spend in a sauna?

This week on Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of sibling rivalry. Does the order you come in your family influence your wealth and health prospects for life?

This week on Show Me The Science,  Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the science of the human bone and diseases of the bone, including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.

This week on Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O'Neill takes a look at the skin condition psoriasis. Psoriasis causes red patches of skin which are dry and flaky. It's prevalent on areas such as your scalp, elbows or knees. But you can get it anywhere on your body, and it's estimated that 5% of the population have some form of it. Luke has worked on this topic, and also has psoriasis...

This week, the Artemis Moon Mission, the first moon mission in over 50 years, landed safely back on Earth. On July 20th, 1969, Luke O’Neill was 5 years of age. He remembers vividly watching Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin Jr landing  on the Moon, and that inspired him to become a scientist. He filled up his copy books, after watching the landing, with rocket ships. There is a lot to ta...

We as humans have been listening to music for over forty thousand years, and recent research has shown that music is really beneficial for us. So, on this week's episode, Professor Luke O'Neill looks at four benefits you can get from music!

On this episode of the podcast, and just in time for Easter, Professor Luke O'Neill is looking at the science of snacking. What are the main reasons why we snack? Why do we like a crunchy snack? And what is 'food noise'?

There has been an outbreak of meningitis centred in Kent, in the UK, in recent weeks. On this episode of Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O’Neill explains why this has happened, and what the two types of meningitis are...

This week, Professor Luke O’Neill dives into one of the most remarkable stories in modern medicine: the birth of Hugo, the first child in the UK to be born from a womb transplanted from a deceased donor. His mother, Grace Bell, born without a womb due to MRKH syndrome, calls her baby son “simply a miracle.”  Luke explores the incredible medical journey behind this milestone. The 10-hour womb...

With St Patrick’s Day just around the corner, Professor Luke O’Neill takes a closer look at the man behind the legend—and the science behind the stories. Drawing on Patrick’s own Confessio, Luke explores how the saint lived a long life, likely thanks to a mix of lifestyle and genetics.  Could there have been two Patricks, Patricius and Palladius? Luke unpacks this theory and shares its surpri...

Winter sports look clean and crystalline on the surface. Snow, ice, precision, courage. But scratch that frozen surface and you find molecular biology doing quiet, mischievous work.  In this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O'Neill takes us from the ski jump ramp to the veg aisle, via one of the strangest alleged performance hacks of the recent Winter Olympics.  First stop: hyaluronic acid...

Cholesterol has a reputation problem. We tend to think of it as the enemy, but your body makes it for a reason. Every cell membrane relies on it, and it’s the building block for key hormones like oestrogen, progesterone, and corticosteroids. You also get cholesterol from your diet. The real issue isn’t cholesterol itself — it’s where it ends up.  In the early 1900s, pathologists examining peo...

Why do we sweat? And what secrets does it hold about our bodies? On this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O'Neill dives into the fascinating science of sweat. From keeping our body temperature in check to signalling stress and even potential mate selection, sweat is far more than just water and salt.  The podcast explores how sweat is made by specialized eccrine glands, originating from plasma...

Weather forecasts are famously imperfect, but the science behind them is far cleverer than we usually give it credit for.  In this week's podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill explores how weather forecasting works, and why floods remain one of the hardest things to predict. Luke isn’t a meteorologist — although he did briefly consider it in college — but too much physics put him off. Still, he’s a...

Why does the marathon push the human body to its absolute limits? And why do some people seem built to keep going when everyone else hits the wall? On this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill takes a biochemical deep dive into marathon running, sparked by a listener’s request. The modern marathon may trace its roots back to Ancient Greece, but what happens inside the body during those 26.2 mile...

Turmeric is everywhere – in teas, capsules, curry powders and health ads – but what does it actually do? On this week's podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill explores the science behind the golden root, explaining why it’s been used for centuries in Eastern medicine and what modern research tells us about its effects.  We dive into curcumin, turmeric’s active ingredient, and learn how it fights inf...

This week on the podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill turns his attention to a condition that’s often misunderstood and far more common than many people realise: Lewy Body Dementia.  Requested by listener Eben Stewart ahead of World Lewy Body Dementia Day on January 28th, the episode looks at what causes LBD, how it differs from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and why so many people are living with i...