Show Me the Science with Luke O'Neill

Why do some people love wine, while others can’t stand it? Why did Covid strip food of its pleasure for so many? And how much of what we call “taste” is really happening in the nose, the brain, and even our memories?  This week's podcast takes on a listener-requested topic: the science of taste and flavour. Professor Luke O’Neill explains why taste is far more complex than the tongue alone, w...

Ireland, like much of Europe, is in the middle of a serious flu outbreak. This week’s podcast focuses on why this year’s influenza wave is hitting so hard, who is most at risk, and what actually helps.  Professor Luke O’Neill explains why flu thrives in winter, spreading easily indoors where ventilation is poor. He outlines the classic flu symptoms — high temperature, severe fatigue, aches an...

Every January, millions of us promise that this will be the year we finally change our habits. We’ll sleep more, stress less, move our bodies, eat better, learn something new, or finally tackle the clutter that’s been quietly judging us from the corner of the room. But by spring, most of those resolutions are long forgotten.  On this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill digs into what resea...

For his Christmas podcast, Professor Luke dives into one of the oldest, strangest and most delightful human behaviours: kissing. And yes, there really are scientists who study it. Kissologists? Why not. Someone has to keep the flame of enquiry burning under the mistletoe.  Kissing isn’t new. In fact, our primate ancestors may have been at it 21 million years ago. Humans, chimpanzees, bonobos...

It’s that time of year when the big nights out collide with the biological reality of the morning after… and Professor Luke is here to explain exactly what’s going on in your head, your liver and your rattled nervous system.  Hangovers are ancient — literally. Chimps get tipsy on fermented fruit, so our ancestors were drinking alcohol millions of years before the first Christmas party. Humans...

This week, Professor Luke dives into a condition that affects Ireland more than almost anywhere else on Earth: haemochromatosis, the iron-overload disorder sometimes dubbed “the Celtic disease”. And we owe this one to two listeners, Kayden and Kari, who emailed Luke asking him to shine a light on it.  Here’s the remarkable thing: 1 in 83 Irish people have haemochromatosis. Globally, it’s clos...

This week, Professor Luke digs into one of the biggest questions in cancer research: how to train the immune system to hunt tumours. Immunotherapy already works in cancers like melanoma and lung cancer — but only 20–30% of patients respond.  A major new study in Nature Medicine may shift that. It tracked more than a thousand patients and found that people who’d had the Covid-19 vaccine respon...

Ireland has finally joined CERN as an associate member, opening the doors of the world’s biggest scientific instrument to Irish researchers for the first time. And what a machine to step into. This week, Professor Luke takes us deep inside the Large Hadron Collider — the 27-kilometre, super-cooled, magnet-driven particle racetrack buried under the Franco-Swiss border, where protons are hurled arou...

Why do so many of us feel the gloom set in when the clocks go back and the days get short? In this week’s podcast, Luke O’Neill delves into the biology of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, a form of depression that appears in winter and lifts again when the light returns.  First identified about fifty years ago in northern Europe, SAD affects around one in every hundred people severely, an...

This week, Professor Luke O’Neill turns his microscope to a condition he knows all too well — cellulitis.  It’s one of the most common bacterial infections there is, affecting about one in every 500 people each year. The skin turns red, swollen, and sore, and you might even feel flu-ish as your immune system fights back. Left untreated, it can spiral into sepsis, making early diagnosis vital....

This week, Show Me The Science gets a little darker — and a little stranger. Professor Luke O’Neill dives into the science of Hallowe’en, tracing its roots back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, the ancient Irish celebration marking the start of winter — that “dead time” when the veil between worlds was said to thin.  It’s not about ghosts and ghouls, Luke explains, but about remembering anc...

Ever wondered what keeps your immune system in check when it starts misbehaving? On this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill explains the world of regulatory T cells—the immune system’s very own “military police.” These tiny guardians stop other cells from attacking the body, helping prevent autoimmune diseases and keeping us healthy.  Luke takes us through the Nobel Prize-winning discover...

An Irish Olympian has decided to take a bold and controversial leap. Swimmer Shane Ryan has retired from conventional competition to join the Enhanced Games, a new event where athletes will be allowed to use performance-enhancing drugs.  In this week’s podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill looks at the science and the ethics behind this radical sporting experiment.  The Games’ creato...

Taylor Swift has changed her accent over the years – and science can prove it. A quirky new study from the University of Minnesota analysed hours of Swift interviews to show how her voice shifted depending on what era she was in. For Professor Luke O’Neill, it’s the perfect excuse to dive into one of his favourite subjects: accents and dialects.  From the five distinct dialects of Ireland to...

They look like alien spacecrafts under a microscope, but bacteriophages — viruses that infect and kill bacteria — could hold the key to one of the biggest medical challenges of our time: antibiotic resistance. First described more than a century ago, phages became a hot topic of research in the mid-20th century, especially in the Soviet Union, before slipping into obscurity with the rise of antibi...

Earth has always been a planet of comebacks. Life has thrived, collapsed, and reinvented itself in astonishing ways. Scientists call the five great wipe-outs of the past the “Big Five” – huge mass extinctions that reset the clock on life. Without them, we wouldn’t even be here to talk about it.  This week, Luke O’Neill dives into what these extinction events can teach us - from the ancient Or...

Breast milk is often called “nature’s first vaccine” and, in this week's podcast, Luke O’Neill explains why. From the moment a baby is born, its immune system is still immature and wide open to infection. Breast milk steps in as the baby’s first line of defence, passing on antibodies, immune cells and even the benefits of vaccines the mother has received. Luke explores how this “passive immunisati...

Professor Luke O’Neill dives into the science behind Type-1 Diabetes for this week's podcast, answering a question from listener Sarah. Luke explains the key differences between Type-1 and other forms of diabetes, guiding us through the early symptoms—intense thirst, frequent urination, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, vision issues, and nausea—and highlighting the serious long-term complications...

Why do some speeches stick in your mind while others fade before the applause ends? In this unusual episode of Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O’Neill swaps the lab for the lectern to reveal the science of captivating public speaking. Drawing on decades of experience addressing audiences from classrooms to conferences, Luke shares his top tips for giving speeches that resonate, whether it’s a...

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) - has long baffled doctors and patients alike. It leaves people with crushing fatigue, brain fog, pain, sleep disturbance and a body that just won’t bounce back after even mild exertion. For too many sufferers, it’s meant years of being dismissed, neglected, or told it was all in their head.  But the science is finally mo...

This week, Luke rolls up his sleeves to tackle a listener request from Danny and Caroline. Caroline’s living with osteoarthritis, so stem cells seemed like just the ticket for discussion.  We start with the basics: stem cells are the body’s precursors, the young all-rounders that can grow into brain neurons, cartilage-makers, or insulin-producing pancreatic cells. In theory, they can be coaxe...

In this lively episode of Show Me The Science, Professor Luke O’Neill gets into a topic that has been… well, a very long time coming: male contraception. While women have had the contraceptive pill since the 1960s, giving them control over their reproductive choices (and giving men, frankly, an easy ride), the search for a safe, reliable male birth control has been slow. Luke examines why – and wh...

In this episode, suggested by listener Barbara Douglas, Luke dives into a timely and important topic: listeria, the bacteria behind a recent outbreak in Ireland that led to recalls of ready meals and salad products by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.  One person has sadly died and nine others have been affected by listeriosis, the illness caused by listeria. Luke explores why this partic...

What happens to our brains and bodies when we gather with thousands of strangers at music festivals, concerts, or gigs? This week, as All Together Now kicks off in Curraghmore, County Waterford, Professor Luke O’Neill dives into the fascinating science of crowd behaviour – and why being part of a crowd can feel so good, or sometimes so dangerous.  Humans are, at heart, social animals. We evol...

In this week's podcast, Professor Luke O’Neill dives into the fascinating world of tech billionaires and their obsession with extending human life. He takes a closer look at four high-profile figures—Larry Page, Peter Thiel, Brian Johnson, and Jack Dorsey—and explores their personal and financial investments in the science of longevity. From bizarre diets to blood transfusions and even cryogenic p...