Chemistry in its element

Brian Clegg introduces the class of materials where the holes are more important than the whole – the super-porous zeolites

It helps prevent garlic plants from marauding insects and should have prevented the Hindenburg disaster – Mike Freemantle on allicin and the smell of freshly crushed garlic

Louise Crane explains how a series of happy accidents led to the discovery of this rose-scented compound, found in rose oil, beer, apple pie and Kentucky bourbon.

Brian Clegg introduces gallium arsenide – the supercar of the semiconductor scene

Georgia Mills introduces the malleable mixture of gold and silver that minted some of the world's oldest coins

Ben Valsler introduces the oxygen sensors that help life react to changing conditions, and were key to the 2019 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine

Enna Guadalupe investigates the toxin found in reef fish that leads to food poisoning so bad it can cause life-long symptoms.

How a Brazilian scientist's knowledge of viper venom led to the discovery of a whole class of medication for high blood pressure. With Mike Freemantle.

Louise Crane investigates a jasmine-derived synthetic scent with supposed sex appeal

Georgia Mills examines a controversial killer: Sodium fluoroacetate or 1080

Sold as a 'sports supplement', methylhexaneamine – or DMAA – is implicated in the deaths of otherwise fit & healthy people. Enna Guadalupe investigates.

Katrina Krämer investigates a marine toxin that drives animals crazy and might have inspired one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films

Mike Freemantle revisits battlefield surgery to investigate boric acid, a key part of Dakin's antiseptic solution used extensively in the first world war

Patrick Hughes delves into the molecule at the centre of a decades-old cancer treatment conspiracy theory

Georgia Mills tackles the feel-good neurotransmitter and hormone behind thrill seeking, addiction and mobile gaming

Mike Freemantle finds the connection between Land of Hope and Glory and the noxious, corrosive, flammable gas that stinks of rotten eggs

One doctor's battle with alcoholism and self-experimentation with baclofen led to a rush of people desperate to try the drug to curb their addictions. But are we simply replacing one problem with another, asks Enna Guadalupe

Microplastics, including polypropylene, are present in our oceans, on our beaches and even in bottled water. Ian Robertson from PerkinElmer investigates the scale and some solutions

Lay back in the chair and say 'Ahh', as Mike Freemantle introduces zinc polycarboxylate dental cement

The versatile gemstones that give scientists insights into the chemistry of the early Earth, introduced by Brian Clegg

Chemistry's tastiest bonds for an explosive anaesthetic that was as useful as it was dangerous

Ben Valsler introduces a class of hallucinogenic phenethylamines, explored by the 'godfather of psychedelics' Alexander Shulgin and sadly implicated in a tragedy at a 2017 music festival

The first drug approved in the US to treat Aids required a completely new approach to clinical trials – Frances Addison explores the history of azidothymidine

How the compound that ushered in a photographic revolution has taken to the skies to try to control the weather

Katrina Krämer investigates how one of the smallest small-molecule drugs around saved Jeanna Giese's life

Kat Arney investigates a potent chemical that might explain the brain-bending powers of bacteria

Mike Freemantle introduces amber – the valuable organic gemstone that invests unwary insects in a durable tomb

Brian Clegg examines the duality that makes beryllium oxide so valuable to the electronics industry

Jamie Durrani diverts his attention to the rise of Ritalin, a drug first identified as a way of improving tennis performance

Frances Addison takes a look at the discovery that brought horseshoe crabs to the heart of the pharmaceutical industry

Kit Chapman investigates the drug that has been one of the top five prescription medications in the UK every year for the last two decades

Inspired by a mention of arrowroot in Jane Austen's Emma, Mike Freemantle investigates how subtle differences in composition mean starch can be resistant dietary fibre or easily-digested nourishment.

How an early synthetic dye chemical came to play a role in a mysterious disease outbreak in 1980s Spain

Coating your naked body with powdered magnesium silicate may sound strange, but it's an important part of many bathtime rituals

Mike Freemantle discovers sea buckthorns, also called 'beauty berries' because of their high concentration of tocopherols and tocotrienols, collectively known as vitamin E.

If you've ever been unlucky enough to experience 'corked' wine, then 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA was likely the chemical culprit

Kat Arney unearths the story of a truly international effort to develop new drugs for cancer, and the female researcher whose key role went overlooked

Kit Chapman on the simple polymer that preserves and protects ancient artifacts, and saved a historical Swedish shipwreck from complete collapse

Mike Freemantle on the iron compound that has been turning oak gall extract into indelible ink for centuries, but is now eating though our ancient manuscripts and musical scores

The mysterious enzyme that can beat the world's biggest chemical process when it comes to breaking the dinitrogen triple bond

A brilliant rich blue rock, prized in antiquity as a gemstone and a prominent pigment, lazurite is the basis of lapis lazuli, the original ultramarine paint and – as Brian Clegg finds – it even adorns Tutankhamun's death mask.

Cases of sleeping sickness – human African trypanosomiasis – are in decline, dropping 86% in Africa between 2000 and 2014. Gege Li explores the role that this toxic, arsenic-based medication has to play.

Many consume cod liver oil due to 'a vague sense we should be taking them for something' – but what to the omega-3 fatty acids actually do?

It made Robert Bunsen seriously ill, Michael Faraday thought it 'barbaric' to use in battle and even Fritz Haber – the 'father of chemical warfare' – abandoned it after a fatal accident in his lab. This week, Mike Freemantle tells the story of tetramethyldiarsine, otherwise known as cacodyl.

Kit Chapman takes us back to the 1904 Olympics in St Louis, via the bronze age and ancient Greece

Louise Crane introduces the antioxidant that led to exaggerated claims that 'whisky helps fight cancer'

The spice that gives your Christmas eggnog its distinctive taste and aroma is also a toxic narcotic that played an important role in international history. Florence Schechter shares the history of myristicin – the active ingredient in nutmeg

Post-nuclear steel is a little bit radioactive, so for some specialist jobs we need to find a source of steel from before the bomb

The compounds that put the 'tin' in tin cans and help you to reflect on your appearance

Kat Arney's investigation of the pungent chemical in onions is enough to bring tears to your eyes