Welcome to the latest in Business Daily's exploration of the role of the chemical elements in the world economy, with me, Justin Rowlett.

And in today's elemental economics, we're looking at an ostensibly unglamorous metal.

And if we drop it, have a listen.

Owl, but one that has helped give mankind wings.

I wish that I could fly into the sky. This metal is named after a mischievous sprite of German mythology,

but the key to its devilish versatility is as an alloy. You'll find it rattling around in your pockets as small change

in your kitchen cutlery, in the batteries that power many of your electronic devices, as well as

in all sorts of industrial applications. Yes, today we are taking flight to explore the many uses of nickel.

But we start the program resolutely earthbound.

Andrea Seller, the Professor of Chemistry at University College London, you've brought me down to a rather peculiar room deep in the basement.

Where are we?

Well, you wouldn't normally associate a place like this with the chemistry department.

You think more maybe of glassware and test tubes.

We're actually down in the machine workshop.

This is a huge space

filled with lathes, cutters, mills, machinery. And it's down here that we actually have

high-end equipment made and designed for us. And I see there's some engineers in white coats

going around tending the machines. Absolutely. We have four guys whose full-time job is to actually make bespoke apparatus for us

out of all kinds of metals, out of plastics, Teflon, those sorts of things.

And one of the metals they use down here, I'm guessing, is the metal in question today, which is, of course, nickel.

Well, nickel is incredibly important.

One of the things about nickel is that

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