Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL, picks five elements that enhance our lives. Today it's aluminium, once fashionable as cutlery but now used in cans, bicycles and tinsel Show more

Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL, celebrates five elements that enhance our lives. Today he admires how strontium gives us red fireworks and reveals our ancestors' past. Show more

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. Show more

Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL, celebrates five elements that enhance our lives. Today he explores why we've always put a high value on gold. Show more

Chemist Andrea Sella celebrates how the element helium enhances our lives. Show more

Margaret Rayman, professor of nutritional medicine at Surrey University, explores why iodine is essential for our health. Show more

Chemist Andrea Sella tell the story of mercury, explaining the significance of this element not just for chemistry, but also the development of modern civilisation. Show more

Oxygen appeared on earth over 2 billion years ago, and life took off. Now it makes up just over a fifth of the air. Trevor Cox tells the story of oxygen on earth and in space. Show more

Monica Grady, professor of planetary science at the Open University, explores the nature of carbon, from its formation in distant stars to its uses and abuses on Earth. Show more

Silicon forms more than a quarter of the earth's crust by weight. With oxygen it makes sand, and it is essential to electronics. Dr Louisa Preston explores why silicon is so useful. Show more

Chemist Andrea Sella tells the story of how the feared element ended up giving us better teeth, mood and health. Show more

Andrew Pontzen, reader in cosmology at UCL, looks at iron's sometimes ambivalent history and how, beyond war and peace, the element has shaped human biology and culture. Show more

How a discovery in boiled urine led to the trade union movement and chemical weapons. Chemist Professor Andrea Sella tells the story of the element phosphorus. Show more

Uta Frith, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development at University College London, on the impact of the use and abuse of lead on humanity, from the iron age to the present day. Show more

From the origins of the universe, though batteries, glass and grease to influencing the working of our brains, neuroscientist Sophie Scott tracks the incredible power of Lithium. Show more

Scientists tell stories of the elements. Sophie Scott on why sodium powers everything we do and why it might be the key to a new generation of pain killers. Show more