The phizz-whizzing science of Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl Day is celebrated each year on 13 September. Dahl gave us much-loved children’s books like Matilda, The BFG and Charlie and the C...
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The Science Hour
Science news and highlights of the week
Episodes
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The 80th birthday celebrations of the late, great Queen frontman Freddie Mercury have us marvelling at mercury at an elemental level: as a k...
A very dry episode
Vast swathes of Europe and Asia are experiencing drought conditions, thanks to relentless heatwaves and lack of rain. This week, we find out...
Fashionably late
News of an Australian library book finally finding its way home 150 years after it was borrowed has the Unexpected Elements team thinking ab...
Light entertainment
As Europe experiences its first total solar eclipse in almost 30 years this week, Unexpected Elements investigates the surprising science th...
Someone's always watching
The UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has found that birdwatching is the second-fastest growing hobby amongst Gen Z with 750,00...
Down The Rabbit Hole
75 years ago, Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland hit our screens, welcoming us into a technicolour, topsy-turvy world of eccentric characters...
Bald caps, sparrow raps and lightning claps
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 scientific odyssey
As the film adaptation of the Odyssey bursts onto screens around the world this week, here at Unexpected Elements we’re undertaking our own...
Everyone needs a hero
A mysterious vigilante in Mexico nicknamed “Batman” has inspired the Unexpected Elements team to investigate the science of superheroes. Fir...
Stuck in a cycle
Pakistan has recently announced that they plan to abolish the 18% sales tax on menstrual products like pads or tampons. UN Women has welcome...
Dividing lines
This week South Korea announced they will be adjusting the Civilian Controlled Zone that borders the demilitarised area between North and So...
Anyone for chips?
The spiralling cost and short supply of microchips – something the tech journalists have dubbed ‘RAMageddon’ – has the Unexpected Elements t...
The beautiful game
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 Un...
Science bears fruit
Long live the king – of mangoes! In India the famed ‘king of mangoes’, the Alphonso mango, is in drastically short supply after a particular...
Celebrating science on Africa Day
How do you translate the latest science work across the 2000 different languages spoken around the African continent? And have you heard of...
Unexpected enhancements
Have you ever wondered what happen to salmon when too much cocaine seeps into their rivers? Inspired by the Enhanced Games, we lookat unexpe...
Hantavirus outbreak and what’s in a name
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 o...
One hundred years of Sir David Attenborough
Sir David Attenborough is arguably the world’s favourite broadcaster, and this week he’s blowing out the candles on his 100th birthday cake....
The soaring price of condoms
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...