In Their Element

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Scientists tell stories of the elements, explaining how chemistry made the modern world.

Scientists tell the stories of different elements, explaining why these well-known substances matter for chemistry and also for the development of modern civilisation.

In Their Element: Series 4: Silver

Silver

Series 4

BBC Radio 4 - In Their Element, Series 4, Silver

Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element silver enhances our lives.

Andrea Sella picks five elements that enhance our lives. Today, he explores the art and science of silver, in jewellery, in a fancy microscope and even in antibacterial clothes.

Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, explores the art and science of silver. Nina Gilbey at the London Jewellery Workshop teaches him how to work the metal and make a silver ring, and at the Science Museum he admires the handiwork of silversmiths who fashioned an elaborate microscope for King George the Third.  

Rupert Cole, Curator of Chemistry at the Science Museum, shows Andrea a silver thimble that was used (with some zinc and a few drops of an acid) to generate an electric current that was sent through a transatlantic telegraph cable in 1866. And Andrea finds out about silver's antibacterial properties from Jean-Yves Maillard, Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology at Cardiff University.

In Their Element: Series 4

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Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL, on five elements that enhance our lives.

In the 150th anniversary year of the publication of Mendeleev's Periodic Table, Professor of Chemistry at UCL Andrea Sella celebrates five elements that enhance our lives.

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In Their Element

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