Elements

Is the dream of a hydrogen-fuelled zero-carbon economy achievable? Presenters Justin Rowlatt and Laurence Knight ask where the hydrogen will come from and how we will store it.

(Picture: An Iwatani serviceman refuels a Toyota Mirai car with hydrogen in Tokyo; Credit: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

The metal that brings shelter and good health to India's poorest. Presenter Laurence Knight travels to a bustling Delhi where Rahul Sharma of the International Zinc Association explains how this self-sacrificing chemical element fights off the ravages of the city smog, while Dr HP Sachdev runs us through its medical benefits.

In Rajasthan Sunil Duggal, chief executive of Hindustan Zinc Ltd, explains how mining operations such as at the gigantic Rampura Agucha will help feed India's coming construction boom. Meanwhile, back in London Justin Rowlatt blows his trumpet.

(Picture: Slum rooftops in Mumbai; Credit: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

As climate change threatens to play havoc with the rain, could we instead draw our water directly from the ocean?

In his second gulp of H2O, presenter Justin Rowlatt hears from climatologist Raymond Pierrehumbert about how global warming is causing drastic but often unpredictable disruption to our natural supplies of freshwater.

Yet as Israel enters its third year of dought, few of the country's citizens are aware of any water shortages. The BBC's Shira Gemer reports on the technological breakthroughs that have made this possible - from the gigantic Sorek desalination plant, to the drip irrigation pioneered by Netafim in the Negev desert.

We also hear from desalination expert Raphael Semiat of Technion University how much the rest of the world can emulate Israel's success.

(Picture: Icebergs float in the Jacobshavn Bay in Greenland; Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Northwest India is fast running out of groundwater. As much of the world faces growing water scarcity, will mass migration and water conflicts become inevitable? Do we take water for granted at our peril? Presenter Justin Rowlatt hears from chemistry professor Andrea Sella of University College London why water is essential for life, and why it is far weirder than we realise. Laurence Knight reports from a parched Rajasthan on what can be done to stop farmers there from pumping the ground dry. And water expert Claudia Ringler of the International Food Policy Research Institute discusses how bad things could get.

(Picture: Man walks across bed of a dried-out lake in Ahmedabad, India; Credit: Sam Panthaky/Getty Images)

Neon, argon, krypton and xenon: Laurence Knight investigates their uses, from the blinding light of the arc welder's torch to the dying trade of the neon sign-making.

(Picture: “Find Love Upstairs” artwork by Chris Bracey at the God’s Own Junkyard neon art gallery)

Nanotech, virtual reality, Moore's Law - we look at germanium, the substance that could oust the silicon from Silicon Valley, and one day help computers supercede your brain.

Radium, polonium and radon may be names to make your hair stand on end, but are they actually useful for anything? And is our fear of them overbaked? Laurence Knight gets the chemistry rundown from Prof Andrea Sella of University College London at a hospital that used to treat cancer with radiation. Al Conklin of the Washington State Department of Health explains how we are still dealing with the world's early Twentieth Century craze for all things radioactive. Edwin Lane reports from Finland on how the country's geology and climate conspired to fill their houses with a radioactive gas. Plus, we hear from Prof Norman Dombey, a key expert witness in the public enquiry into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

(Picture: Glow-in-the-dark radium clock dial; Credit: Ted Kinsman/Science Photo Library)

Is coltan - the notorious conflict mineral from which these two metals are derived - still being smuggled from DR Congo into Rwanda, to evade taxes and sourcing controls? Laurence Knight investigates the hi-tech roles to which these two chemical elements are put in gadgets and telecommunications. He also discusses the bloody history behind the mining of their ore in the heart of Africa with Sophia Pickles of human rights organisation Global Witness. And the BBC challenges the Rwandan authorities and chipmaker Intel about what they are doing to address allegations of current-day smuggling of coltan across the border from Congo to be laundered in Rwanda.

(Picture: A miner cleans freshly dug coltan ore at the Abahizi cooperative mine in Ngara, Rwanda)

Rare and toxic, beryllium can do serious damage to your lungs. Presenter Laurence Knight explores whether and how we can make use of this metal safely. Prof Andrea Sella of University College London explains why beryllium's surprising scarcity is the very reason it can be so harmful to the body. Gianna Palmer reports from the Hanford nuclear site in Washington State on this chemical element's intimate and poisonous history in the US nuclear weapons programme. And we hear from IBC Advanced Alloys, a company that claims to have a novel, cheap - and safe - way of producing aeroplane parts out of beryllium-aluminium.

This metal played a part in the worst car crash in history, the 1955 Le Mans disaster, helping to make the resulting inferno explosively dangerous. Yet despite its fiery reputation, and its proneness to corrosion, magnesium has regained its historic role in making planes and cars lighter and more efficient. Presenter Laurence Knight visits Magnesium Elektron, the company behind the alloy used in the ill-fated Le Mans car, to find out how a new breed of alloys has exorcised the demon's in this metal's past. We also hear from researcher Kristin Persson about an entirely new role magnesium could play in the car industry - as an even lighter and more compact replacement for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.