Balloon manoeuvres

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 fl ...  Show more

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 delv ...  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.

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

At the dawn of human flight you had one option... Balloons! Balloons were all the rage in 1700s France and Aeronauts were the daredevils / entertainers at the cutting edge of this new science that made the spectacle come alive! Matt and Helen discuss this magical time with profes ...  Show more