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Silver

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

Aluminium

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

Gold

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

Helium

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

Strontium

Chemist Andrea Sella ends his festive series with fireworks and the element strontium.

Sodium: The key to life

Sodium, the explosive alkali metal that is crucial for all life on Earth.

Any Old Iron

Beyond war and peace, how iron has shaped human biology and culture.

Fluorine: Chemistry's Tiger

Fluorine has a deadly reputation as one of the most reactive of all the elements.

Awesome Iodine

Why iodine is essential for our health.

Phosphorus, Smoke and Lighting

How a discovery in boiled urine led to the trade union movement and chemical weapons.

Our Lives with Lead

Uta Frith assesses the impact of the use and abuse of lead on humanity.

Silicon - The World's Building Block

The key component of rocks, sand and materials from glass and concrete to microelectronics

Carbon - the backbone of life

Why is all known life built on carbon?

And then there was Li

The element that links the formation of the universe with the functioning of our brains.

Oxygen: The Breath of Life

Trevor Cox takes a deep breath and tells the story of oxygen on earth and in space.

Mercury - Chemistry's Jekyll and Hyde

The most beautiful and shimmering of the elements, the weirdest, and yet the most reviled.