Unexpected Elements

This week, hackers infiltrated supermarket fridges and freezers across Europe, sending their temperatures sky-high. Millions of euros worth of food had to be thrown away. Reports say the cyber attacks were a deliberate attempt to disrupt Europe’s food supply.
However, for Unexpected Elements, the news story has inspired the team to investigate some really cool science.
First, we take the plunge into the fascinating world of fungi. New research published this year has been looking at its ice-freezing properties, which could be used for everything from freezing human tissue to engineering the weather.
We then learn about a high school ice-cream experiment that resulted in a puzzling physics phenomenon.
Next, Professor Naoko Kurahashi-Neilson from Dexter University joins us to explain how a James Bond-esque base under the Antarctic ice is helping astronomers to see the Universe in a whole new light.
Plus, what food need to go in the fridge, and how can you brew a good cup of tea at high altitude?
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenters: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Michael Kaloki 
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Dan Welsh and Robbie Wojciechowski

The Unexpected Elements team are science-maxxing, following the headline that “maxxing” has been named 2026’s word of the year by dictionary.com.
Strap yourself in for tales of total commitment, including the longest running experiment, and the scientist who guarded it for 40 years but missed every single once-a decade magic moment. And we’ll be mini-maxing, with a tiny but mighty effort to build a molecule from the atom up.  
We meet a neuroscientist and 8 times world memory champion who shares tricks of the trade, and how any of us can start memory-maxxing and building up a cognitive reserve.
Plus, we’ll be tackling the newest reporting of a 3 Body problem, unpicking the advantages of being even-handed, and fibre-maxxing and protein-maxxing are so 2026 –  maybe it's time for moderation-maxxing.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Dan Welsh with Ella Hubber, Robbie Wojciechowski, and Lucy Davies

This week, the Unexpected Elements team have been glued to a story about a $126 million fraud caused by fake US postage labels. That inspires a show filled with lies, cheats and deception.
We meet the flower that catfishes its way to reproductive success by intimating a female fly and learn if humans are more or less honest when money is involved as part of an experiment that required 17,000 lost wallets.
We meet Nicholas Eastaugh, the physicist turned art fraud investigator, who shares the tools of his trade and explains how science helped bust a notorious art forger and we hunt for the imposter in the world of science journalism, writing real articles for real money, albeit while trading off the reputations of established authors.
Plus, we celebrate the retraction watch awards – CTLR Z gives recognition if you own your mistakes in science.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Producers: Ella Hubber with Sophie Ormiston and Lucy Davies

A new bridge has just been opened between China and North Korea after a 12-year delay. And that got the Unexpected Elements team thinking about some bridge-related science.
We start things off by finding out about the microscopic bridges connecting undersea bacteria. We then delve into bridge-editing, a next-generation gene-editing tool that could be better than CRISPR at altering DNA.
Next up, mathematician Dr Kit Yates tells us about the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, a historic puzzle that launched a new type of maths.
Also, suitcase malaria, how newborn babies identify their parents, and the creation of a new wildlife crossing.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Andrada Fiscutean and Kai Kupferschmidt
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Dan Welsh, Lucy Davies and Robbie Wojciechowski

After a Chinese fitness influencer was caught hitching a lift on a bicycle during the Berlin Marathon, the Unexpected Elements team find themselves contemplating a range of scientific shortcuts.
First up, we hear about how Earthlings may have been hitching a lift on the back of asteroids all the way to the clouds of Venus. Next, can you tell if someone drinks beer from an X-ray of their knee? Of course not! But we find out why AI thinks you can.
We’re then joined by Chad Orzel, Professor of Physics at Union College and author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, who helps us explore why quantum physics might be the answer to the ultimate shortcut – teleportation.
Also, how our brains create stories when we listen to music, why most people can’t digest seaweed, and the scientists who buried 2,000 pairs of underpants.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton with Leonie Joubert and Tristan Ahtone
Producers: Lucy Davies with Dan Welsh, Alice Lipscombe-Southwell and Robbie Wojciechowski