Out for blood
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 565 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With this year’s Oscars on the horizon, and vampire film Sinners nominated for a record-breaking 16 awards, the Unexpected Elements team sinks their teeth into some blood-sucking science.
First, we discover that Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian prince who inspired Dracula, may have not only had blood on his hands, but also in his tears. We also hear about a woman in Guadeloupe with the world’s newest and rarest blood type.
We’re then joined by Dr Naomi Ewald from the UK’s Freshwater Habitats Trust who tells us all about nature’s little bloodsuckers – leeches – and why their use in medicine is not just a practice consigned to the history books.
Also, the gravity-defying gecko of the Gambia, how close are we to producing artificial blood, and the Patagonian dinosaur that looks like a judgemental chicken.
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producers: Ella Hubber, with Sophie Ormiston, Lucy Davies and Imy Harper
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear |
| 0:31.2 | the very latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.5 | Back in the 1960s, my dad was witnessed to a traffic accident. |
| 0:46.2 | Nothing major, but someone definitely had a few scrapes and an ambulance was called. |
| 0:52.4 | My dad isn't good with the sight of blood |
| 0:54.4 | and stared at someone's injury for long enough to pass out cold. |
| 0:59.1 | The ambulance arrived and prioritised the unconscious man |
| 1:02.4 | who was clearly more seriously hurt |
| 1:04.7 | than the man behind the steering wheel with the cut on his head. |
| 1:08.5 | Dad came to in the ambulance and, on explaining himself, said that the |
| 1:12.6 | paramedics were very unsympathetic to his predicament. More than that, they were irate and promptly |
| 1:19.0 | kicked him out of the ambulance to make space for a proper patient. I'm Marnie Chesterton from |
| 1:25.1 | the BBC World Service. This is Unexpected Elements. |
| 1:42.4 | This is a science-based group chat, so probably best to meet that group. |
| 1:48.3 | In Helsinki, Finland, we have Editor-at-Large at Grist magazine, Tristan Aiton. Welcome, welcome. |
| 1:54.3 | Andande-on-de-Balbon. Good to be here. |
| 1:56.3 | And Science and Health Journalist and broadcaster Katie Silver in Mexico City. Welcome back. |
... |
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