Fantastic Elastic

The Infinite Monkey Cage

Brian Cox and Robin Ince expand their knowledge of elasticity with Olympian Bryony Page, comedian Jessica Fostekew & experts Dr Anna Ploszajski and Prof James Busfield from Queen Mary University of London.

What makes stretchy things stretch? Together our panel journey through different applications of elastic materials and examine, at the molecular level, what happens when we stretch a material and crucially what causes it to return to its original shape. This is especially pertinent to our guest Olympic and British champion trampolinist Bryony Page who has capitalised on elasticity in her 24 year long career. We discover that the bounce of a trampoline mainly comes from the elasticity of steel and how dependent this is on temperature. Cold temperatures are not only treacherous for trampolines; we explore how the cold proved fatal to the elastic components of both the Titanic and the Challenger space shuttle.

Plus we hear how scientists sometimes just can’t beat nature; natural rubber and spiders silk are two such cases. Anna Ploszajski takes us through some of the more inventive techniques scientists have engineered to produced more of these natural materials, including genetically engineering goats to be milked for silk.

Producer: Melanie Brown Exec Producer: Alexandra Feachem Researcher: Olivia Jani

BBC Studios Audio production