Animals at the Wuhan Market

A dip in global cocoa prices got the Unexpected Elements team wondering about chocolate science. First, we look at how the microbial communities in cocoa beans fine tune the taste of chocolate. Also, could table sugar help us detect the missing bits of the universe? We look at ho ...  Show more

Identical twins on trial for murder in France have left forensic experts unable to answer the question of which one pulled the gun’s trigger. With both having the same DNA, it got the Unexpected Elements team thinking, when do identical twins cease to be identical?First, we look ...  Show more

Inside our gut lives an entire ecosystem of bacteria and microbes, called the microbiome. In fact, the human body contains trillions of microorganisms, which outnumber our cells by ten to one. This means that technically we are more microbe than human. But not only do these mi ...

We are a teeming mass of interconnected microbes and the impact of this microscopic universe on our health, our minds, even our moods, is profound.Made in collaboration with Wellcome Collection, Claudia Hammond and an expert panel explore one of the fastest moving areas of scienc ...  Show more

The trillions of microbes living on and inside the human body are an important part of who we are, from mediating all our interactions with the environment to determining our cancer risk and influencing who we fall for. And scientists are only just beginning to decipher the speci ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of microbiology. We have more microbes in our bodies than we have human cells. We fear them as the cause of disease, yet are reliant on them for processes as diverse as water purification, pharmaceuticals, bread-making and brewing. In t ...  Show more