Elemental Discoveries on the Radio

Sheffield University’s WebElements guru Mark Winter alerted us to a recent BBC Radio 4 [link dead] series touching on Periodic Tales told by members of the cast of long-lived rural radio soap The Archers…

  • Krypton: Hedli Nicklaus on the Superman element, krypton
  • Helium: Brian Perkins dramatises the effects of Helium
  • Silver: Trevor Harrison finds some unusual properties of Silver
  • Cobalt: Nicklaus takes on the goblin element of cobalt
  • Selenium: Carole Boyd unearths selenium
  • Oxygen: Perkins bravely dramatises the effects of oxygen
  • Arsenic: Charlotte Green takes on the deadly history of arsenic
  • Mercury: Boyd reflects on mercury, the poisonous liquid metal
  • Iodine: Green on the discovery of iodine’s essential place in brain development
  • Nickel: Harrison reveals that the space station Mir is largely made of nickel.

It seems a little more worthy than recent efforts to connect and elements and celebrities, which I mentioned recently, despite the fact that they got radio soap stars to do the task, but presumably has the same conceptual origins of getting chemistry a better name, which can only be a good thing.