Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Metal

Episode 1 of 3

Mark Miodownik traces the history of our love affair with metal. He investigates metals at the atomic level and sees how metal crystals can be grown to survive inside a jet engine.

Professor Mark Miodownik travels to Israel to trace the history of our love affair with gleaming, lustrous metal. He learns how we first extracted glinting copper from dull rock and used it to shape our world and reveals how our eternal quest for lighter, stronger metals led us to forge hard, sharp steel from malleable iron and to create complex alloys in order to conquer the skies.

He investigates metals at the atomic level to reveal mysterious properties such as why they get stronger when they are hit, and he discovers how metal crystals can be grown to survive inside one of our most extreme environments - the jet engine.

1 hour

Last on

Wed 15 May 2019 00:00

More episodes

Previous

You are at the first episode

Next

See all episodes from How It Works

Clip

Music Played

  • Portishead

    Roads

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Mark Miodownik
Executive Producer Helen Thomas
Series Producer Jacqueline Smith

Broadcasts