Some really cool science
Unexpected Elements
BBC
4.4 • 565 Ratings
🗓️ 20 June 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers at ice hockey’s Stanley Cup championship, which sent us skating into ice-related science.
First up, we hear about an ancient ice skate that’s been unearthed in Prerov, Czech Republic, which sends us pondering about the physics of ice-skating.
We then discover why licking a flagpole on a chilly day is a bad idea, before delving into the science of cryopreservation.
Next up, we speak to Dr Mark Drinkwater of the European Space Agency, who reveals how satellites can help us monitor and better understand our planet’s melting ice sheets.
Plus, what do you do if you want to play ice hockey but you live near the equator?
All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements. Presenter: Marnie Chesterton, with Chhavi Sachdev and Sandy Ong Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, with Margaret Sessa Hawkins and Minnie Harrop
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2019, we began investigating the disappearance of Dr. Ruzha Ignatva. |
| 0:08.0 | I believe we are a very special network. |
| 0:10.0 | A scammer who stole billions from investors around the world. |
| 0:15.0 | She's on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. |
| 0:18.0 | And now, we have some unmissable updates. She has money and when you have |
| 0:23.0 | money, you have power. Join me, Jamie Bartlett, as the hunt for the missing crypto queen continues. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:34.5 | My favourite author, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote a book called Cats Cradle, and in it, a bunch of |
| 0:41.2 | scientists create a form of ice more energetically stable than liquid water at room temperature. |
| 0:48.0 | So any liquid water in contact with this fictional ice nine turns to ice two. It doesn't end well. It turns out that |
| 0:58.1 | in real life, scientists are still discovering new forms of this wonderful solid water. You'd think |
| 1:05.4 | that a molecule made of one atom of oxygen bound to two atoms of hydrogen, so a tiny boomerang-shaped thing would arrange itself in a limited number of ways. |
| 1:16.7 | But no. |
| 1:18.3 | Chemists have discovered 20 different kinds of ice |
| 1:22.1 | and say that there may be more, theoretically, |
| 1:24.8 | as many as 74,963, different ways of putting together a block of ice. |
| 1:32.9 | They will all have subtly different properties and conditions for existing. |
| 1:37.9 | But, unlike Kurt Vonnegut's fictional Ice 9, there's no variance to freeze life on Earth, |
| 1:44.1 | just thousands of ways to add a cooling element to your cocktail. |
| 1:48.3 | I'm Marnie Chesterton from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:51.6 | This is Unexpected Elements. |
| 1:53.3 | Music And joining me in my super cool party, our two global science journalists in Mumbai, India, we have Chavi Satcheb. |
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