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Aluminium

Episode 2 of 5

Andrea Sella, Professor of Chemistry at UCL, picks five elements that enhance our lives. Today it's aluminium, once fashionable as cutlery but now used in cans, bicycles and tinsel

At the time of Emperor Napoleon the Third aluminium was more valuable than gold and silver. The Emperor liked the metal so much he had his cutlery made out of it. But once a cheaper way was discovered to extract aluminium it began to be used for all kinds of objects, from aeroplanes to coffee pots. Andrea Sella, Professor Inorganic Chemistry, talks to Professor Mark Miodownik at the Institute of Making at UCL about why aluminium is such a useful material, from keeping crisps crisp to the tinsel on our Christmas trees. Andrea visits the Science Museum where he admires an aluminium plane of the class flown by Amelia Earhart. And he talks about the lightness of bicycles made from aluminium with Keith Noronha, of Reynolds Technology.

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Sat 2 Jan 2021 05:45

Broadcasts

  • Christmas Eve 2019 13:45
  • Tue 22 Dec 2020 09:30
  • Sat 2 Jan 2021 05:45

Primo Levi's The Periodic Table

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Major dramatisation of Primo Levi's element-themed stories about life, work and matter.