All Podcast articles – Page 5

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  • Chanel N°5 perfume
    Podcast

    Indole

    2019-05-31T09:30:00Z

    Kat Arney investigates a potent chemical that might explain the brain-bending powers of bacteria

  • amber resin tree sap
    Podcast

    Amber

    2019-05-23T13:58:00Z

    Mike Freemantle introduces amber – the valuable organic gemstone that invests unwary insects in a durable tomb

  • Computer chip
    Podcast

    Beryllium oxide

    2019-05-17T13:27:00Z

    Brian Clegg examines the duality that makes beryllium oxide so valuable to the electronics industry

  • Children in classroom
    Podcast

    Methylphenidate (Ritalin)

    2019-05-10T10:00:00Z

    Jamie Durrani diverts his attention to the rise of Ritalin, a drug first identified as a way of improving tennis performance

  • A picture of the cover of Clearing the Air
    Podcast

    Book Club – Clearing the air

    2019-05-10T07:40:00Z

    Tim Smedley travels the world to work out why air pollution occurs, and what we can do to solve the problem

  • Horseshoe crabs in water
    Podcast

    Limulus Amebocyte Lysate

    2019-05-03T10:30:00Z

    Frances Addison takes a look at the discovery that brought horseshoe crabs to the heart of the pharmaceutical industry

  • Blister pack tablets
    Podcast

    Levothyroxine

    2019-04-26T09:30:00Z

    Kit Chapman investigates the drug that has been one of the top five prescription medications in the UK every year for the last two decades

  • Arrowroot crop in Bermuda
    Podcast

    Starch

    2019-04-19T09:31:00Z

    Inspired by a mention of arrowroot in Jane Austen's Emma, Mike Freemantle investigates how subtle differences in composition mean starch can be resistant dietary fibre or easily-digested nourishment.

  • Olive oil
    Podcast

    Aniline

    2019-04-12T09:30:00Z

    How an early synthetic dye chemical came to play a role in a mysterious disease outbreak in 1980s Spain

  • The book cover of The truth about fat
    Podcast

    Book Club – The truth about fat

    2019-04-09T14:00:00Z

    ‘Angry chef’ Anthony Warner wants you to understand why people really get fat and how society tricks us into blaming each other

  • Plume of talcum powder
    Podcast

    Talc: Magnesium silicate

    2019-04-05T10:30:00Z

    Coating your naked body with powdered magnesium silicate may sound strange, but it's an important part of many bathtime rituals

  • Sea buckthorn berries and oil
    Podcast

    Tocopherols

    2019-03-29T15:08:00Z

    Mike Freemantle discovers sea buckthorn fruits also called 'beauty berries' because of their high concentration of tocopherols and tocotrienols, collectively known as vitamin E

  • Sommelier smelling wine and taking notes
    Podcast

    Trichloroanisole: Cork taint

    2019-03-22T14:00:00Z

    If you've ever been unlucky enough to experience 'corked' wine, then 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA was likely the chemical culprit

  • Cub scout surrounded by flowers
    Podcast

    Vinblastine and vincristine: Vinca alkaloids

    2019-03-15T13:36:00Z

    Kat Arney unearths a story of an overlooked female researcher in the search for the origins of cancer drugs found in plants

  • The Vasa, restored and on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm
    Podcast

    Polyethylene glycol or PEG

    2019-03-08T13:28:00Z

    The simple polymer that preserves and protects ancient artifacts, and saved a historical Swedish shipwreck from complete collapse

  • Humble Pi cover wide
    Podcast

    Book Club – Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

    2019-03-04T14:47:00Z

    Matt Parker uses comedy to explore the unique relationship between humans and maths and how numbers are behind errors large and small

  • Feather pen, inkwell and letter
    Podcast

    Ferrous sulfate

    2019-03-01T14:38:00Z

    The iron compound that has been turning oak gall extract into indelible ink for centuries, but is now eating though our ancient manuscripts and musical scores

  • Development of soybean root
    Podcast

    Nitrogenase

    2019-02-22T09:30:00Z

    The mysterious enzyme that can beat the world’s biggest chemical process when it comes to breaking the dinitrogen triple bond

  • Funeral mask of the Pharoah Tutankhamun
    Podcast

    Lazurite

    2019-02-15T12:09:00Z

    A brilliant rich blue rock, prized in antiquity as a gemstone and a prominent pigment, lazurite is the basis of lapis lazuli, the original ultramarine paint and – as Brian Clegg finds – it even adorns Tutankhamun's death mask

  • Tsetse Fly
    Podcast

    Melarsoprol

    2019-02-07T14:20:00Z

    Cases of sleeping sickness – human African trypanosomiasis – are in decline, dropping 86% in Africa between 2000 and 2014. Gege Li explores the role that this toxic, arsenic-based medication has to play.