Unexpected Elements cover art

All Episodes

Unexpected Elements — 335 episodes

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Title
1

A scientific odyssey

2

Everyone needs a hero

3

Stuck in a cycle

4

Dividing lines

5

Anyone for chips?

6

The beautiful game

7

Science bears fruit

8

Celebrating science on Africa Day

9

Unexpected enhancements

10

Hantavirus outbreak and what’s in a name

11

One hundred years of Sir David Attenborough

12

The soaring price of condoms

13

Chernobyl: 40 years later

14

The ribbiting science of frogs

15

Is everyone accounted for?

16

Putting science on the map

17

A bumper edition

18

In the name of science

19

Out for blood

20

The colour of science

21

A sweet treat

22

Seeing double

23

Are you lucky?

24

Let the games begin

25

Are you still with us?

26

Banging the science drum

27

Science down under

28

Science of the future

29

An episode inspired by our listeners

30

The gift of science

31

Why are we sad when television series end?

32

Chicken, with a side order of science

33

Some bear-y interesting space science

34

The unexpected science behind Klimt's artwork

35

Some Beautiful Science

36

A keg of beer-based science

37

A storm of science

38

A science heist

39

How does biometric data work?

40

Why are gold prices so high?

41

The strongest stuff in the Universe

42

Science inspired by Taylor Swift

43

Two-hundred years of trains

44

Pirate science ahoy!

45

Some dam awesome science

46

Punk rock science

47

Where do beaches come from?

48

Mountains of overtourism

49

Why do we follow trends?

50

Floods, mangroves and rampaging tractors

51

Traffic science

52

Trailer: 13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

53

The science of ageing

54

How dust affects the world

55

Sharks, albatrosses, the Jaws theme and fishing

56

Cargo ships, chemical spills and caribou

57

A roarsome episode

58

Some really cool science

59

Defuse and diffuse

60

Gaming-inspired science

61

Mission unexpectedly possible

62

Story time

63

Enduring it all

64

Ant antics

65

In memoriam

66

Kenya believe it?

67

An eggciting episode

68

Navigating northward

69

Oh, Rats!

70

Don’t be a fool!

71

What’s that smell?

72

The fast and the curious

73

Silent science

74

Topsy turvy

75

Standing on the shoulders of giants

76

Let’s talk about love

77

All by myself

78

Snake science

79

Keep it clean

80

Circles, circumferences and Covid

81

Scientist spotlight

82

(Re)New Year

83

Festive trash talk

84

The science of Santa

85

Totally bananas

86

Going home

87

Doing a deal

88

Super Science

89

Are you not entertained?

90

Supermassive numbers

91

The Swing of Things

92

Mystery blobs

93

TV made me do it

94

The world's longest treasure hunt

95

Science to make you smile

96

All things Oregon!

97

Shiny: Why we are dazzled by new sparkly things

98

Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō: The new Māori Kuini

99

Thrillseekers

100

The world's worst tourist

101

A sticky situation

102

The only one

103

Let them eat crab

104

Can I eat it?

105

Breaking, climbing, and surfing

106

Marriage madness

107

Political Jet Lag

108

Mushroom magic

109

Lights out

110

Seismic swift

111

An unexpected burger

112

Balloon manoeuvres

113

Eternal flames

114

A world going on underground

115

Winning Losers

116

Unexpected birthday party

117

Horsey driverless cars and competitive cloning

118

A scientific séance

119

Computer memories and quantum futures

120

Beyoncé, banjos and dancing chemistry

121

Unexpected elections

122

G.O.A.T

123

Ancient water, modern solutions

124

Fandom: The next generation

125

Unexpected Oscars

126

Leaping in Sync

127

Going the distance

128

Not so random acts of kindness

129

Deep in thought

130

How plankton made mountains

131

Populations of people, frogs and microbes

132

Rulers and the rules of ageing

133

Super corals and science diplomacy

134

Timing is everything

135

The Best of Unexpected Elements

136

A very dark day

137

An exploration of empathy

138

Boring science

139

Meetings with intelligent worms

140

All about cricket(s)

141

Why we need to talk toilets

142

Working 70 hours a week

143

Scary science

144

Fashion to dye for

145

Putting Madonna to the test

146

How bedbugs took over the world

147

Complete shutdown

148

How inflation affects the entire cosmos

149

Can technology read our mind?

150

Forgetful fish, telescopic worms and bad air days

151

Zombies, cows and coups

152

Protecting the Moon

153

The man who couldn’t lie

154

Corrupted thinking and cancerous co-option

155

Some of our universe is missing

156

The World Cup and hallucinogenic bananas

157

Password1234#Invisibility&Moonshot

158

Barbie in Space

159

Nato and the left-handed universe

160

Unexpected elements on the sea bed

161

Predictions from the sky and murderous fish

162

Hayfever, paleobotany and snot palaces

163

Wildfires and wild animals

164

Collapsing pensions and civilisations

165

Migrate ideas

166

Signals, seaweed and space

167

Co-operation and cohesion

168

Coronation exploration

169

Return of Cyclone Freddy

170

Human genome editing: Promise and Peril

171

Drought worsens in East Africa

172

Animals at the Wuhan Market

173

Cyclone Freddy batters Madagascar

174

CRISPR & bioethics

175

Turkey-Syria earthquake

176

Science on ice

177

Bird flu (H5N1) outbreak in mink

178

Climate science activism

179

Atmospheric rivers

180

One year on from the Tonga eruption

181

The James Webb Space Telescope - the first 6 months

182

Mosquito pesticide failing

183

Fusion milestone

184

Ancient warmth in Greenland

185

COVID spreads in China

186

A distant planet’s atmosphere

187

Online harassment of Covid scientists

188

Neurons that restore walking in paralysed patients

189

What peat can tell us about our future

190

Seismic events on Mars

191

The most powerful explosion ever recorded

192

Inserting human neurons into the brains of rats

193

Nobel Prize 2022: The science behind the winners

194

The final moments of DART

195

Should we mine the deep sea?

196

Science and the causes behind Pakistan’s floods

197

The genetics of human intelligence

198

The China Heatwave and the New Normal

199

Surprises from a Martian Lake Bed

200

Deadly drought

201

Icelandic volcano erupts again

202

Synthetic mouse embryos with brains and hearts

203

The first galaxies at the universe's dawn

204

Heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere

205

First images from the James Webb Space Telescope

206

Long Covid ‘brain fog’

207

Extreme heat death risk in Latin America

208

Monster microbe

209

Thirty years after the Earth Summit

210

Body scan reveals HIV's hideouts

211

Should we worry about the latest Omicron subvariants?

212

Heat death by volcano and other stories

213

Death in the rainforest

214

Portrait of the monster black hole at our galaxy’s heart

215

Mekong Delta will sink beneath the sea by 2100

216

The Indian subcontinent’s record-breaking heatwave

217

Climate techno-fix would worsen global malaria burden

218

How ‘magic mushroom’ chemical treats depression

219

Tsunami detective in Tonga

220

Radioactive Red Forest

221

Covid in the sewers

222

Why are Covid19 cases rising in Hong Kong?

223

Covid -19 origins

224

Reforming the 'China Initiative'

225

Bone repair from Covid-19 vaccine technology

226

Inside Wuhan's coronavirus lab

227

Identifying a more infectious HIV variant

228

The roots of Long Covid

229

Tonga eruption – how it happened

230

Have we got it wrong on Omicron?

231

CORBEVAX – A vaccine for the world?

232

Omicron – mild or monster?

233

Omicron’s rapid replication rate

234

Can the weather trigger a volcano?

235

Omicron, racism and trust

236

Deliberately doomed dart

237

The end for coal power?

238

Bambi got Covid

239

Jet fuel from thin air

240

Can we still avoid climate catastrophe?

241

Red blood cells’ surprising immune function

242

Wetlands under attack

243

Youngest rock samples from the moon

244

Drug resistant malaria found in East Africa

245

New evidence for SARS-CoV-2’s origin in bats

246

Ebola can remain dormant for five years

247

Keep most fossil fuel in ground to meet 1.5 degree goal

248

Methane - a climate solution?

249

Record-shattering weather

250

Insects in incredible detail

251

Nyiragongo Eruption

252

Robot revolution

253

Covid and clean air

254

Africa’s oldest burial

255

Uncovering history with Little Foot's skull

256

Waste not, want not

257

Weird weather

258

Perseverance approaches Mars

259

Mixing Covid vaccines

260

Saving the Northern White Rhino

261

Gravitational waves and black holes

262

New variants of SARS-Cov2

263

Coping with Covid

264

2021 the year of variants

265

A year with Covid -19

266

Covid -19 – Mutations are normal

267

The unchecked spread of Covid-19 in Manaus

268

Freak weather getting even freakier

269

Vaccines – the Covid confusion

270

Covid- 19 – Good news on immunity

271

Covid-19 defeats US Marines

272

Coronavirus spreads from mink to humans

273

Osiris Rex stows asteroid material

274

Nasa probe Osiris Rex lands on asteroid

275

Covid -19 mortality

276

Do Covid–19 mutations matter?

277

Are children the biggest Covid-19 spreaders?

278

Why Covid -19 vaccines may not stop transmission

279

Malaria resistance breakthrough

280

Covid -19 science versus politics

281

Nyiragongo - is Goma under threat?

282

Covid-19 Therapy Controversy

283

Trouble in Greenland

284

Putin’s Covid-19 vaccine

285

Counting the heat health threat from climate change

286

NASA rover heads for Mars ancient lake

287

Making a Covid-19 vaccine for two billion people

288

How long do Covid-19 antibodies last?

289

Rwanda’s game changing coronavirus test

290

Covid-19 and children

291

Record high temperatures – in the Arctic

292

Covid -19 hope for severe cases

293

Food security, locusts and Covid -19

294

The medical complexity of Covid -19

295

Brazil’s Covid chaos

296

Loosening lockdown

297

Covid -19 new hope from blood tests

298

Ebola drug offers hope for Covid-19

299

Presidents and pandemics

300

Italy, getting Covid 19 under control

301

The impossibility of social distancing and even handwashing in crowded refugee camps

302

Covid 19 – The fightback in Africa begins

303

The science of social distancing

304

Covid -19, are you carrying the virus?

305

Covid -19 how infectious is it really?

306

Australia’s fires - fuelled by climate change

307

Tracking coronavirus spread

308

Monitoring Covid-19, harvests and space junk

309

CoVid-19: Mapping the outbreak

310

Coronavirus, prospects for treatment?

311

Understanding the Wuhan coronavirus

312

Wuhan Coronavirus

313

Mount Taal volcano

314

Australia’s extreme fire season

315

Adapting California

316

Gaming climate change

317

Understanding the Anak Krakatau eruption

318

White Island volcano eruption

319

CRISPR babies scandal – more details

320

New Malaria target

321

Politics and Amazonia’s fires

322

Australia burning

323

Climate in crisis

324

Wildfires and winds in California

325

Is quantum supremacy ‘garbage’?

326

Malaria, origins and a potential new treatment

327

From batteries to distant worlds

328

Global climate inaction

329

South East Asia choking - again

330

Embryoids from stem cells

331

New evidence of nuclear reactor explosion

332

Nanotube computer says hello

333

Amazonian fires likely to worsen

334

Cracking the case of the Krakatoa volcano collapse

335

The birth of a new volcano