In Their Element - How Chemistry Made The Modern World - Various

Category: Radio Productions, Science
Language: English
Keywords: BBC Full Cast Radio 4

Written by Various
Read by Full Cast
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps

In Their Element: How Chemistry Made the Modern World
A BBC Radio 4 Programme
By: BBC Radio
Narrated by: full cast
Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
Radio/TV Program
Release date: 19-11-2020
Language: English
Publisher: BBC Audio
Join world-leading scientists as they delve into the incredible stories behind 16 elements, including the dark and controversial history of gold; how a solar eclipse in 1868 led to the discovery of the periodic table’s most notorious escape artist, helium; the role of iron in the rise and fall of human civilisations; why you might find iodine in British milk, but not necessarily anywhere else in the world; and how a discovery in boiled urine led to the trade union movement and a chemical weapon.

Far from being confined to a laboratory, In Their Element weaves chemistry back into our everyday lives.

From the incredible power of lithium to our use and abuse of lead, to why carbon is the backbone of life but silicone is the world’s crucial building block. We learn why fluorine is called ‘the tiger of chemistry’, how sodium might be the key to a new generation of painkillers, that mercury is integral to hundreds of years of scientific discoveries, and the extraordinary story of how the health impact of phosphorus on a group of Irish girls changed politics forever.

In Their Element is a fascinating introduction to both the history of chemistry and a debate about the way we use raw materials in the modern world:

Mercury
Oxygen
Lithium
Carbon
Silicon
Lead
Phosphorus
Iodine
Fluorine
Iron
Sodium
Silver
Aluminium
Gold
Helium
Strontium
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