Chemistry in its element

Cinnamaldehyde: Chemistry in its element

How did a tree bark from Sri Lanka become one of the essential flavours of the festive season? We explore the history...

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• 1 month

Azidoazide azide: Chemistry in its element

A compound so explosively unstable that nobody has been able to measure how sensitive it is without it, well,...

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• 1 month

Ochre: Chemistry in its element

How one of mankind's oldest pigments helped shepherds secure their sheep and inspired one of the most popular songs...

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• 2 months

Maltodextrin: Chemistry in its element

A sweet compound that provides ample energy for extreme endurance events – find out how maltodextrin helped...

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• 2 months

Ionic liquids: Chemistry in its element

Liquid salts, ionic melts, fused salts, or ionic glasses – call them what you like, these much-hyped solvents...

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• 2 months

Chlorhexidine: Chemistry in its element

An antimicrobial compound that kills bacteria and viruses quickly – found in some of the most colourful...

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• 2 months

Asparagusic acid: Chemistry in its element

Does asparagus give you foul-smelling urine? Helen Arney investigates asparagusic acid, and the lavatorial genetic...

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• 3 months

Glycyrrhizic acid: Chemistry in its element

A sweet treat with a deadly trick for Halloween – glycyrrhizic acid, or glycyrrhizin, is found in black...

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• 3 months

Propofol: Chemistry in its element

Also known as 'milk of amnesia', propofol helps to prevent perception of pain in surgery – just don't forget...

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• 3 months

Sofosbuvir: Chemistry in its element

Hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir made waves when first launched – quicker to work and with fewer side effects than...

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• 3 months

Bedaquiline: Chemistry in its element

Meera Senthilingam makes a welcome return to the podcast with a drug that gives hope to the many sufferers of...

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• 3 months

Oxybenzone: Chemistry in its element

This summer's extreme weather prompts Katrina Krämer to investigate the history of sunblock and the ingredient blamed...

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• 4 months

Gypsum: Chemistry in its element

From Lavoisier’s experiments with plaster of paris to the the ‘Sistine Chapel of crystals’ in...

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• 5 months

Favipiravir: Chemistry in its element

Originally developed to treat flu and marketed in Japan as Avigan, promising Covid-19 trial results have seen...

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• 6 months

Tannic acid: Chemistry in its element

Tannic acid in green acorns can kill wild animals and livestock, but in this podcast Mike Freemantle makes plain that...

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• 6 months

Ractopamine: Chemistry in its element

Common in the US but banned in the EU, this animal feed additive makes for muscular pigs and beefy international...

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• 6 months

Hexasilabenzene: Chemistry in its element

Brian Clegg discovers what a six-membered silicon ring can tell us about alien life

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• 6 months

2AP (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline): Chemistry in its element

Frances Addison on the aromatic compound found in both buttered popcorn and the bearcat’s scent glands, and...

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• 7 months

Dexamethasone: Chemistry in its element

News that this cheap, ubiquitous steroid drug may reduce deaths in Covid-19 cases has been greeted with cautious...

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• 7 months

Porcelain: Chemistry in its element

Mike Freemantle on the art, history and science of this delicate, translucent ceramic material

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• 7 months