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Unexpected Elements

BBC

Science

4.4 • 565 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are You Dead?

That’s the name of an app that’s gone massively viral in China. Every two days, you click a green button to confirm you’re alive and well – but if you miss it, an emergency contact is alerted.

The app is aimed towards those who live alone, so it’s got us contemplating the science of connection and loneliness. First, we take a look at the most isolated trees on Earth and how they act as important recorders of history. We also discuss NASA’s space probe Voyager 1, and how we can connect with a device that’s 25 billion kilometres away from us.

We’re joined by glaciologist Liz Morris, who shares what it was like to do research far from civilisation, in Antarctica.

Then we reunite with a species that we thought was lost for ever, and answer an important question: just how big can spiders get?

All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Candice Bailey and Ogechi Ekeanyanwu Producers: Ella Hubber, with Lucy Davies, Imy Harper, Tim Dodd, Sophie Ormiston and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts.
0:05.6	Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might like our podcast too.
0:12.1	You might. You might. It is called Sightraught with me Nick Grimshaw.
0:15.2	And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music.
0:18.2	All the news, all the cultural happenings in the UK and beyond.
0:22.2	And great guests.
0:23.3	And it's on BBC Sounds.
0:24.7	Yes, where you can also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and live radio.
0:29.9	Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind.
0:34.5	But obviously start with our podcast, sidetrack.
0:36.3	Obviously.
0:36.7	Obviously.
0:38.2	So if you like music, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:44.7	I've spent a lot of time in airports over recent weeks, which makes me think of a great
0:49.6	George Clooney film called Up in the Air.
0:52.9	In it, he plays a guy who travels a lot for work,
0:55.8	who has decided to gamify his corporate life by chasing the goal of flying 10 million miles,
1:02.4	which gets you lifetime perks. Up in the Air has a nice double meaning, as the emotional
1:08.9	emptiness of George's supposedly successful life unfolds
1:13.0	before him. It does feel like a weird sort of paradox that while we live in an age where
1:19.1	travel can bring us closer together, we aren't reporting more closeness. Quite the opposite.
1:24.8	A couple of years ago, the World Health Organization declared loneliness a global life-shortening epidemic.
	...

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