Balloon manoeuvres

The Hindu festival of Holi has the Unexpected Elements team delving into the science of colour. First up, forget chicken and egg, we bring you a whole new controversy of which came first: colour or colour vision? Then, we learn how a new development in infrared contact lenses cou ...  Show more

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

Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at University College London, celebrates the art and science of the chemical elements. Today he looks at helium. Helium is a finite resource here on Earth and many branches of science need it. Doctors need it to run MRI machines to d ...  Show more

Balloons are often filled with helium, which has a lifting force of one gram per meter. It's possible to assemble enough balloons to lift yourself from the ground -- but how many balloons does it take? Tune into this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more.

In early February, 2023, the US shot down a Chinese balloon. The US says the balloon was gathering intelligence while the Chinese claimed it was a weather balloon. We look at the history of spy balloons and how they've evolved over time, as well as the dilemma these balloons put ...  Show more

Have you ever accidentally let go of a helium balloon and watched it float up … up … and away? It drifts way up in the sky until it’s just a tiny speck! But what would happen if a balloon made it all the way to outer space? We asked astrophysicist Amanda Farah to help us find the ...  Show more