Helium

Dr Seth Berkley is an epidemiologist and global health leader whose career has been shaped by one central problem: vaccines save lives, but only if people can actually get them. His 40-year career has spanned the global, from helping to build Uganda’s first HIV surveillance syste ...  Show more

Hiranya Peiris is playing a starring role in a movie that promises to tell perhaps the greatest story of all time. However, it’s a movie with a difference – there’s no director and no script. The Legacy Survey of Space and Time is one of the most ambitious projects in the world o ...  Show more

Encore episode. Helium is the second-most common element in the cosmos, but it's far rarer on planet Earth. As part of our celebration of the periodic table's 150th birthday, correspondent Geoff Brumfiel shares a brief history of helium's ascent, to become a crucial part of rocke ...  Show more

After North Korean balloons delivered trash to South Korea, we explore balloons of all kinds, why they can be useful, and when they’re not.Scientists have been using balloons for a long time, from pig bladders dropped from great heights, to Michael Faraday inventing the rubber ba ...  Show more

Qu’est-ce que l’hélium 3 ? Merci d’avoir posé la question ! L’hélium 3 est un gaz un peu spécial : il peut produire de gigantesques quantités d’énergie. Problème : on en trouve très peu sur Terre. C’est pourquoi certains Etats et entreprises sont prêts à aller le chercher… sur la ...  Show more

The process that powers our sun was still a mystery about 100 years ago. Bit by bit, scientists have worked out that the fusion of hydrogen at a star’s core can generate enough power to keep it shining for billions of years. Now, armed with this knowledge, researchers around t ...