Skip to content
Global sound
Unexpected Elements

Unexpected Elements

Building bridges

· 50 min

Show notes

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 delve into bridge-editing, a next-generation gene-editing tool that could be better than CRISPR at altering DNA.
Next up, mathematician Dr Kit Yates tells us about the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, a historic puzzle that launched a new type of maths.
Also, suitcase malaria, how newborn babies identify their parents, and the creation of a new wildlife crossing.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Andrada Fiscutean and Kai Kupferschmidt
Producers: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Dan Welsh, Lucy Davies and Robbie Wojciechowski

Website: bbc.co.uk

Live, last hour: 2,162 songs on 1,424 stations in 48 countries

Discover the world through radio

More ways to discover (9)

Heard something good? Save it, or open it straight away in Spotify.

Radio 538 luisteren - Live!Popular right now