Silicon

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the physics, biology and chemistry of the element silicon which is at the heart of some of the most useful and beautiful objects on the planet. While it is still being created throughout the universe, the silicon we have here was made billions of years ago in dying stars. In its compounds we have long used silicon for glass and, more recently, purified silicon has become the foundation of modern electronics. Perhaps less appreciated is the role silicon compounds play in the biology of life on Earth, on the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the cycling of elements between land, oceans and atmosphere that sustains us.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Kate Hendry No other episodes
  Oceanographer at the British Antarctic Survey and Bye-Fellow of Queen's College, University of Cambridge
• Professor Andrea Sella 4 episodes
  Professor of Chemistry at University College London
• Professor Monica Grady 10 episodes
  Professor Emerita in Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University

Reading list

• Silica Stories
  Christina De La Rocha and Daniel J. Conley (Springer, 2017) Google Books →
• The Biogeochemical Cycle of Silicon in the Ocean
  Bernard Queguiner (John Wiley & Sons, 2016)

Related episodes

• Carbon
  
  15 Jun, 2006 540 Chemistry
• Chemical Elements
  
  25 May, 2000 540 Chemistry
• Water
  
  28 Mar, 2013 540 Chemistry
• States of Matter
  
  3 Apr, 2014 530 Physics
• Plasma
  
  13 Oct, 2016 530 Physics
• Macromolecules
  
  29 Dec, 2011 570 Biology
• Conductors and Semiconductors
  
  23 Feb, 2012 530 Physics
• Photosynthesis
  
  15 May, 2014 570 Biology
• The Science of Glass
  
  28 May, 2015 620 Engineering
• The Habitability of Planets
  
  12 Dec, 2024 570 Biology

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m002t2v2

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t2v2

Auto-category: 546.681 (Inorganic Chemistry - Silicon)