Elements

Bromine puts out fires - both in the home and in the heart. But despite its reputation as an anti-aphrodisiac, this chemical element's biggest use is in fire retardants, found in everything from your sofa to your radio. But do these bromine-based chemicals pose a risk to your health? Presenter Justin Rowlatt hears from chemistry professor Andrea Sella of University College London, about his own childhood encounter with this noxious red liquid. Justin speaks to chemicals industry analyst Laura Syrett of Industrial Minerals about why she thinks bromine may have been the victim of 'chemophobia' - an irrational public prejudice against chemicals. And, the BBC's Mark Lobel travels to the world's biggest source of bromine, the Dead Sea, to see the bromine works of Israel Chemicals Ltd, and comes face-to-face with some of the company's allegedly dangerous products in the hands of deputy head Anat Tal. (Picture: Dead Sea, showing southern evaporation ponds to right; Credit: Google)

Plutonium is one of a family of highly radioactive "synthetic" elements cooked up in nuclear reactors. But does it and its kin have any practical application besides the atom bomb? We travel to plutonium's sunny birthplace to find out. (Picture: Nuclear test in Nevada in 1953; Credit: Stocktrek Images/Thinkstock)

Already responsible for the IT revolution, could silicon be about to pull off an energy revolution too? We hear from pioneer John Schaeffer about solar power's hippy roots, and Richard Swanson of Sun Power explains why it may be on course to become the world's dominant source of energy. Meanwhile Republican stalwart Barry Goldwater Jr. makes a surprising political bedfellow for solar's traditionally green supporters. (Picture: Californian house covered in solar panels; Credit: Sunrun)

Silicon is synonymous with the computer revolution. We travel to its eponymous birthplace - Silicon Valley in California - to ask chip pioneers Intel why this chemical element has supported a billion-fold increase in computing power, and whether the exponential improvement implied by "Moore's Law" has reached the end of the line. (Picture: Intel 22 nanometre transistor; Credit: Intel)

Sulphur is in abundant supply thanks to its extraction from sour oil and gas, in order to prevent acid rain pollution. But does the world face a glut of this devilish chemical element, famed for its colour and odour? And if so, what uses can it be put to? Justin Rowlatt has his hair cut as professor Andrea Sella of University College London, demonstrates sulphur's surprisingly plastic - and acrid - qualities. He travels to the leafy London suburb of Twickenham to find out about Joshua Ward, the charlatan who set up the world's first sulphuric acid factory. We hear from Richard Hands, editor of Sulphur magazine, about the element's many industrial uses, as well as the gigantic heaps of unwanted sulphur piling up in Canada and Florida. And Mike Lumley, who leads efforts at Shell to make use of the oil giant's sulphur bi-product, explains why the end of acid rain has opened up a surprising new source of demand. Finally, Justin speaks to Dr Robert Ballard - the man who located the shipwreck of the Titani

Tungsten is one of the hardest, heaviest and highest melting metals, used in everything from bulbs to bullets, x-rays to drill bits. Justin Rowlatt hears from the perennial Professor Andrea Sella of University College London about the properties of what is one of the densest of elements. We get a tour of the SGS Carbide tool factory with managing director Alan Pearce, and we consider the market value of this very useful element with Mark Seddon, head of consultancy firm Tungsten Market Research. Should we worry that China dominates demand? And why is it taking so long to open up new sources? We visit the Hemerdon mining project in the pretty English county of Devon, and hear from Russell Clark, head of the mining firm Wolf Minerals that is reopening it. And, there is a very special reason why your government should care about its tungsten supplies, as military technology analyst Robert Kelley explains. (Picture: Soldier lays armour-piercing sabot round on the ground during Operation Desert Shield;

Traditionally used as a magic ingredient to produce tougher, more wear-resistant steels, vanadium has discovered a surprising new calling in life. Could this neglected metal, and the gigantic batteries it produces, provide the perfect counterpart for temperamental wind and solar energy sources? And could a future source of the mineral be harvested from the bottom of the sea? (Picture: Chrome vanadium adjustable spanners and bolts; Credit: runrobirun/Thinkstock)

Nitrogen is a crucial ingredient in fertilisers. And thanks to a pair of clever Germans, the Haber-Bosch process of fixing nitrogen from the air ensures that the planet's burgeoning population can still feed itself. But does it also threaten the planet with an environmental disaster more calamitous than climate change? And could the solution be provided by genetic engineers? (Picture: Legume root nodules; Credit: Ninjatacoshell/Wikicommons)

Some 78% of the Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen. Yet this seemingly inert gas is the key component of bombs and explosives. It has brought life and death on an epic scale since mankind first unlocked its potential a century ago. And it has brought tragedy to the lives of the scientists who mastered its potential. (Picture: Early Bosch ammonia reactor in Ludwigshafen; Credit: BASF)

Polymers – or plastics – are enduring, cheap, mouldable and versatile. Yet their very durability mean they litter our landscapes. And their main raw material - crude oil - will not last forever. So could the future be to use nature - with a little tweaking from man - to draw plastics from the atmosphere, and return them at the end of life?

What links soap, paper, heart disease and murder? Sodium. In the latest in our series of programmes looking at the world economy from the perspective of the elements of the periodic table, Justin Rowlatt returns to the chlor-alkali plant of Industrial Chemicals Ltd to discover from chemistry professor Andrea Sella how sodium is ripped from common table salt, and how it provides the grist for the global chemicals industry. One of its biggest uses is in the Kraft process, the most common way of pulping wood to make paper. Malcolm Brabant travels to a remote corner of Sweden, where the Munksjo paper company first put the technique into practice over a century ago. But sodium does not only digest wood - we hear the first-hand account of serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli on how she used caustic soda to dispose of her victims. Plus, Justin explores sodium's controversial role in our diet, and in regulating blood pressure. We pit Morton Satin, the self-styled 'Salt Guru' and spokesman for the US salt industry, again

Chlorine is more than just a chemical used in swimming pools. This poisonous green gas is the great enabling element of the chemicals industry, used in creating your clothes, computer chips, medicines and flooring. Justin Rowlatt travels to Thurrock to tour the chlor-alkali plant of Industrial Chemicals Ltd with chief chemist David Compton, as he discovers the brutal process of extracting chlorine from the most mundane of raw materials - table salt. We hear from regular contributor Professor Andrea Sella of University College London who explains the many uses of chlorine. Finally Laurence Knight speaks to Mike Smith, an expert in the chlorine market from consultants IHS, about why the bursting of Spain's property bubble might put up the price of soap there.

Lithium is the electro-chemical element - big in batteries and bipolar disorder. Over two decades it has shot from obscurity to become almost synonymous with the way we power our gadgets. Presenter Justin Rowlatt hears from chemistry powerhouse professor Andrea Sella of University College London about what makes lithium so light and energetic. We hear from Gideon Long in Chile, who visits the world's richest source of lithium in the Atacama Desert, and about how neighbouring Bolivia believes it will dominate supply if demand for this alkali metal continues to see double-digit growth. Justin speaks to professor Nigel Brandon of Imperial College, an expert on cutting-edge battery research, about whether lithium can ever realistically hope to challenge a can of petrol as the best way to power a car. And, we hear from clinical psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison of Johns Hopkins University about the literally life-saving role lithium has played for sufferers of bipolar disorder - including herself. (Picture: Salar

Neither rare nor earths, these 17 elements are nonetheless difficult and unpleasant to mine and refine. Chemically near-identical, these metals have unique magnetic and optical properties, making them essential in modern technology from fibre optics to wind turbines. So should we worry about China's stranglehold over their supply? (Picture: 20 euro note glows under an ultraviolet light; Credit: Frans Dekkers/Thinkstock)

Diamonds are not forever. They can be burned, and these days they can be mass-produced in a factory. So can your jeweller tell the difference between a natural and chemically identical "fake"? And can the new breed of cheap, pure, manmade rocks be put to novel, hi-tech uses, beyond drilling rocks and adorning the wealthy? (Picture: Synthetic diamond lens; Credit: Element Six)

Calcium is the great structural element. It is the basis of much of the great architecture in nature as well as many of the incredible structures made by man. Presenter Justin Rowlatt hears from chemistry supremo Andrea Sella at the Royal Institution in London, where calcium was first isolated two centuries ago. He visits the obscure birthplace of the biggest modern-day use of calcium - cement - and sees that use in action at London's giant Crossrail construction project. And, if that weren't enough, we also hear from Professor Serena Best of Cambridge University about how she is trying to replicate the way the human body uses calcium to construct bone.

Tin may seem old-fashioned, but it plays some surprisingly important roles in the modern economy. Presenter Justin Rowlatt meets our favourite chemist Andrea Sella of UCL at Pewters' Hall in London to discover the unique properties of the metal that sparked the Bronze Age. He discovers the metal's role in plastics and electronics, and visits the giant Pilkington glass factory to find out how tin revolutionised the glass-making industry. And he meets two very venerable tin chemists, Alwyn Davies and Ted Fletcher.

We all know carbon's role in global warming, but could element 6 also provide some solutions? Carbon fibre composites are making planes more fuel efficient, as Airbus explains. And wonder-material graphene has opened up a new world of applications, from energy storage to fuel filtration, as we discover at Manchester University.

Carbon is a great energy store – in plants and animals, but also as hydrocarbons – coal, oil and natural gas. From the Industrial Revolution onwards, burning these fossil fuels has released vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the air, affecting our climate and oceans. So can we ever get by without carbon-based energy?

Heavy and chemically inert, why is gold, of all the elements of the periodic table, so highly valued by mankind? Does it even provide a sound basis for modern currencies? What is it actually useful for? And, given its value, what extraordinary lengths will people go to, to recover every tiny scrap of it?