BBC World Service Science 340 এপিসোড USA 2026-08-14 1 এক্সট্রাকশন
The news you know, the science you don’t. Unexpected Elements looks beyond everyday narratives to discover a goldmine of scientific stories and connections from around the globe. From Afronauts, to why we argue, to a deep dive on animal lifespans: see the world in a new way.
News of an Australian library book finally finding its way home 150 years after it was borrowed has the Unexpected Elements team thinking about things that get forgotten, filed away or simply turn up ...
As Europe experiences its first total solar eclipse in almost 30 years this week, Unexpected Elements investigates the surprising science that emerges when sunlight is blocked out.
We travel to the ...
The UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has found that birdwatching is the second-fastest growing hobby amongst Gen Z with 750,000 of them regularly venturing into the outdoors to spot some...
75 years ago, Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland hit our screens, welcoming us into a technicolour, topsy-turvy world of eccentric characters – including the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of ...
If you were lucky enough to be at rapper Pitbull's recent concert in Hyde Park in London, you would have been greeted by a sea of bald caps. A Guiness World record-breaking sea of 22,141 bald caps. An...
As the film adaptation of the Odyssey bursts onto screens around the world this week, here at Unexpected Elements we’re undertaking our own epic journey through science – all inspired by the ancient G...
A mysterious vigilante in Mexico nicknamed “Batman” has inspired the Unexpected Elements team to investigate the science of superheroes.
First up, we explore whether a Batman’s presence can actually ...
Pakistan has recently announced that they plan to abolish the 18% sales tax on menstrual products like pads or tampons. UN Women has welcomed the decision, saying that when these products become more ...
This week South Korea announced they will be adjusting the Civilian Controlled Zone that borders the demilitarised area between North and South Korea. The reshuffle will allow thousands of civilians t...
The spiralling cost and short supply of microchips – something the tech journalists have dubbed ‘RAMageddon’ – has the Unexpected Elements team investigating all things chip-related.
We start things...
As the Fifa Men’s World Cup kicks off this week in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, football fever is everywhere – and this has the Unexpected Elements team exploring all things football.
First...
Long live the king – of mangoes! In India the famed ‘king of mangoes’, the Alphonso mango, is in drastically short supply after a particularly bad bout of adverse weather. Inspired by the mango’s plig...
How do you translate the latest science work across the 2000 different languages spoken around the African continent? And have you heard of sky mountain? Africa Day has the Unexpected Elements team ta...
Have you ever wondered what happen to salmon when too much cocaine seeps into their rivers? Inspired by the Enhanced Games, we lookat unexpected areas of performance enhancement. Peptides are making a...
An outbreak of hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship has us looking at the unexpected science around the disease. First up, why is this outbreak such an unusual occurrence?
Then, what's in a name...
Sir David Attenborough is arguably the world’s favourite broadcaster, and this week he’s blowing out the candles on his 100th birthday cake. Inspired by his significant birthday, we decided to uncover...
The blockade on the strait of Hormuz has led to an unexpected consequence – condom prices are set to increase by up to 30 percent! This has us delving into all things contraception, starting with koal...
On 26th April 1986, Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded, releasing vast amounts of radiation. Now, 40 years later, it remains the worst nuclear accident in history.
Us...
In 2025, Russian-born scientist Kseniia Petrova picked up some spliced frog embryos from a laboratory in France and brought them back to the USA to aid her research into ageing and cancer. She was det...
This month, India began the immense undertaking of surveying its population of 1.4 billion people in the world’s largest ever census. Inspired by this huge task, the Unexpected Elements team explores ...
