Unexpected Elements

In a competitive world, is it always best to finish first? A tribute to second place, second thoughts, and second opinions.

You might assume that Olympic gold medallists have more successful lives than their silver-placed competitors. A study shows that on average winners die a year younger than the runners up, and earn less money.

In the invasive jelly-fish wars of the Black Sea of recent years, it seems the second-comers prevailed over the voracious first-timers.

And what about siblings? Does the first-born in a family really have any discernible advantage in life?

Also, the potential perils of cutting-edge wearable medi-tech, the value of second opinions, and the chemical benefits of silver itself.

Presented by Marnie Chesterton, with Godfred Boafo and Andrada Fiscutean Produced by Alex Mansfield, with Dan Welsh, Julia Ravey and Noa Dowling Sound by Gwynfor Jones

It’s time for an unexpected celebration and we look to science for advice on clothes, cake and how presenter Marnie and panellists Christine and Candice can improve their singing. We also hear about the sleuths who have tracked down an animal that’s been presumed extinct for almost a century, we help a listener find the answer to whether using sunscreen is stopping him from getting vitamin d and Marnie talks to the Dog Aging Project to ask why studying healthy ageing in our canine companions can lead to better health for people too. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Panellists: Christine Yohannes and Candice Bailey Guests: Bryan Nichols, Pennsylvania State University and Matt Kaberline, founder of the Dog Aging Project. Producer: Tom Bonnett with Dan Welsh, Emily Knight, Julia Ravey and Noa Dowling

The sight of horses running wild in a city leads panellist Tristan Ahtone in Helsinki to rethink how we rate horses' welfare, Chhavi Sachdev in Mumbai tells the story of the country that is cloning the Lionel Messi of horses for sport and presenter Marnie Chesterton finds out why roboticist Eakta Jain is studying horses to engineer better relationships between humans and autonomous vehicles. All that, plus the slippery record for the world's biggest snake, how the alphabet came to be and asteroid forcing scientists to reiterate 'it will not hit Earth'.

Light the candles, cross your legs and follow the Unexpected Team as they cross the boarders of reality to ask why we believe in the illogical.

Light the candles, cross your legs and join the Unexpected Team as they journey beyond the borders of reality to ask why we believe in the illogical.

After a fraudulent psychic dupes 1.3 Americans, panellist Camilla Mota turns to history for insight into how scientists debunk such con artists. The Unexpected library harbours secrets of paranormal experimentation and dead air live on the BBC, and panellist Phillys Mwatee reveals why our beliefs win out over hard evidence written in ink. Nevertheless, in a world rife with conspiracy and vaccine hesitancy, Melissa Kapulu from the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, shares the fascinating scientific obstacles faced in the quest to eradicate malaria from Africa once and for all.

Also hear how a Nigerian Pastor and super-star has been making Melissa's job much harder, and life on fake mars.

Note to self: No ghoul or spirit observed, moving on to next show... Presenter: Alex Lathbridge, Phillys Mwatee and Camilla Mota

Producer: Harrison Lewis, Alex Mansfield and Noa Dowling

These days, over a trillion semiconductor microchips are made and shipped each year. The industry is worth eye-watering amounts, and since the 2020-2023 global shortage, nearly all governments are trying to get a slice of the industrial wafer.

But what was it like just 40 years ago trying to get yourself a home computer when your communist leaders didn’t approve, and there were nowhere enough devices to go round anyway? Andrada Fiscutean spoke to some of the bootleggers.

These days, not only are computing devices in just about everyone’s hands, they are mostly interconnected to vast arrays of machines collectively forming “the cloud”, which provides so much of our economic and scientific infrastructure. It is no longer about stand alone computing.

But just maybe the deep future of computing lies in using individual atoms and photons as information-bearing digits. This is the basis of “quantum computing” which could use the properties and mechanics of the quantum scale to perform hugely complicated calculations in fractions of a second.

Prof David Lucas of Oxford University physics department and colleagues are building some key demonstrators of the techniques we need to master. And just recently, they built an impressive manifestation of “Blind Quantum Computing”, which just might enable something like the quantum cloud of the future.

Also, we have a look at an app for modern motorists that adjusts a piece of music to react to the movement of the car. Developed by Mercedes-AMG and the rapper Will.i.am, Christine Yohannes has been thinking about drivers becoming the musical maestros of their own journeys.

Presented by Alex Lathbridge, with Andrada Fiscutean and Christine Yohannes. Produced by Alex Mansfield, with Harrison Lewis and Tom Bonnett.

Beyonce's new album tops the charts with a reappraisal of who can do country music and the Unexpected Elements team has a hoedown. Panellist Christine Yohannes unearths new research that changes our understanding of the origins of cowboys. Chhavi Sachdev has a thing or two to teach Beyonce as she reveals why the banjo has it's characteristic twang and we meet a man with powerful chemistry - TikTok dance sensation Dr Andre Isaacs from the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts tells presenter Marnie Chesterton how dancing in his lab helps explain click chemistry.

We also hear how new species could be given names that refer to the locations they're found in, we discuss whether mining is causing the Earth to shrink and, of course, eclipses make an appearance. We shed some light on how an eclipse over 100 years ago helped prove Einstein's theory of relativity.

In a year when billions of people have been go to the ballot box, what do stickleback fish have to do with it?

Alex Lathbridge, Tristan Ahtone and Candice Bailey discuss some unexpected elements of electoral studies.

Can ancient geology really map election outcomes? What has Machine Learning done for polling?

Psychologist Sandra Obradović drops in to share some of her expertise in the psychology of voting with the team, and just what does a solar eclipse have to do with dragons?

Presented by Alex Lathbridge, with Tristan Ahtone and Candice Bailey.

Produced by Katie Tomsett, with Harrison Lewis, Alex Mansfield and Phil Sansom.

Can you put a price on the perfect athlete? In baseball you can, and that’s a $700 million dollar contract. Shoehi Ohtani took to the field in Seoul for the LA Dodgers to prove that the big cheque was worth it.

It has Marnie asking – can you predict if one of your kids will become the G.O.A.T – the Greatest of All Time in any sport? She’ll also be investigating the other kind of goat – I'd say ordinary, but these ones are fighting wildfires.

We bring you the curious tale of a never-before-seen beach pebble washing up on the shores of a remote island. What are they? And get the lowdown on the most unpleasant sounding ultramarathons after a 40-year-old Scottish woman completes a race SO hard that only 20 people have finished .

Plus, gravitational waves, home-grown antivenom, and listening on double speed. Can your brain take it?

Presented by Marnie Chesterton, Phillys Mwatee and Camilla Mota.

Produced by Harrison Lewis with Tom Bonnett, Jack Lee and Cath Mcghee.

In a week of headlines about water shortages slowing ships in the Panama Canal and drought in India's Silicon Valley, we look at unexpected ways to manage the world’s water.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton and panellists Chhavi Sachdev in Mumbai, India, and Meral Sachdev in Nunavut, Canada, tell stories of innovative ideas being tried in their parts of the world.

Then Marnie meets water detective Barbara Sherwood Lollar, professor in earth sciences at the University of Toronto, to hear how ancient water can help us plan for the future. Plus, how submersible speakers can help corals, and stories of living underground.

Produced by Dan Welsh with Tom Bonnett, Harrison Lewis, Jack Lee, Katie Tompsett and Emily Preston

Passionate K-Pop fans send us on a journey into the science of fandom. Panellists Andrada Fiskutean in Bucharest, Romania and Tristan Ahtone in Helsinki, Finland bring us stories of Star Trek’s sci-fi utopias, why allegiances affect our behaviour and how a cunning sea creature chooses which side of itself to reveal.

Presenter Marnie Chesterton meets one of her heroes - American theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who helps Marnie understand the universe with lyrical beauty.