Chhavi Sachdev

After 31 years, a mammoth treasure hunt consisting of solving eleven cryptic clues has finally concluded. A replica of the final prize – a golden owl – was dug up in France, leaving fellow treasure hunters both disappointed and relieved.
Inspired by this pursuit, the Unexpected Elements team unearth some of science’s hidden gems. From the potential resurrection of ancient healing tree balm to the world’s rarest stone, and even how cats could help solve crimes. The team are also joined by astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol to speak about the potential treasures hiding on another moon in our solar

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Unexpected Elements - Shiny: Why we are dazzled by new sparkly things - BBC Sounds
Unexpected Elements
Shiny: Why we are dazzled by new sparkly things
Available for over a year
Like magpies, we're obsessed with everything shiny. What is behind this attraction?
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Join Marnie Chesterton and science journalists Chhavi Sachdev and Jes Burns, on their on their Oregon science mission. We investigate building materials of the future, from creative cement alternatives to buildings made of wood, and hear from forest scientist Sarah Jovan about how one humble plant has made huge changes to Portland's air quality.

Plus, we make waves with a new wave energy testing facility, uncover the benefits (or costs) of bamboo alternatives and our panellist fight against the clock to pitch what they think should take the crown of Oregon's Coolest Science.

18 is often considered the start of adulthood? CrowdScience listener Lynda didn't feel very mature back then; but can neuroscience or biology tell us when we’re truly grown up? Chhavi Sachdev contributes from the field in India with two interviews with women who had children quite young: 17 and 22

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How does salt get into the world's oceans, and is melting glacier ice making them any fresher? We travel to India and the USA to answer two of your two salient saline questions.
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Release date: 14 June 2024
31 minutes
On radio
Fri 14 Jun 2024 12:32
BBC World Service
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How a salty calculation helped predict hydrothermal vents
Duration: 02:27
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For the hundreds of people who live in a cluster of villages between India and Pakistan, a map drawn up long ago still causes daily struggles. For 72 years, communities who live by the Ravi on the Indian side have been asking for a permanent bridge, so they can access hospitals, schools, shops, banks. What they have got is a makeshift pontoon bridge, which has to be dismantled for the monsoon season. Journalist Chhavi Sachdev travels to the western part of India to meet the Indian people whose lives are shaped by the Ravi river.

We all know seawater is salty - but why? That's what listener Julie is wondering. She lives near the coast in New Zealand and wants to know how all that salt ended up in the water that washes up on her local beach.
From New Zealand to India, where salt became symbolic of much more than well-seasoned food. Host Chhavi Sachdev searches for answers in salt farms on India's coast, and in a research institute dedicated to all things saline.The team also ventures to a very briny lake on the other side of the globe to find out one way salt makes its way into bodies of water, while an expert in dee

From Olympic torches to zombie fires, we stoke the flames which do not go out
Presenter: Caroline Steel with Philistiah Mwatee and Chhavi Sachdev
You might expect snow to make a solid fire extinguisher, but in Canada, it is somehow keeping embers alight. These ‘Zombie fires’ keep burning through the winter, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the air and enhancing the tinderbox for summer wildfires.
We hear about when the first fires happened on Earth and how we can study ancient fires which have long since gone out. Plus, we unpick the key to monogamy (in mice), why cicadas love prime numbe

Beyonce's new album tops the charts with a reappraisal of who can do country music and the Unexpected Elements team has a hoedown. Panellist Christine Yohannes unearths new research that changes our understanding of the origins of cowboys. Chhavi Sachdev has a thing or two to teach Beyonce as she reveals why the banjo has it's characteristic twang and we meet a man with powerful chemistry - TikTok dance sensation Dr Andre Isaacs from the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts tells presenter Marnie Chesterton how dancing in his lab helps explain click chemistry.

Lagos Fashion Week makes some unexpected connections to vegan wool, 1920s car marketing, and Right to Repair legislation. If we consider our obsession with the clothes we wear to be some result of sexual selection, do any other animals evolve their self-expression with such frequency?

Dr Ellen Garland of St Andrew’s University tells how male humpback whales change their song with surprisingly infectious rapidity, and talks us through some recent hits.

Also, some catalytic promise for wastewater management, and how choosing a language in which to think changes your decision making.

"When will we have an HIV vaccine?"

Claudia Hammond is joined by Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University, to discuss the latest news about HIV vaccines, funding and treatment from around the world.

We also hear about Super 5, a home-grown nutritional supplement being made by rural women in Rajasthan, in India, to address the problem of child undernutrition and malnutrition reported by Chhavi Sachdev

In a week of headlines about water shortages slowing ships in the Panama Canal and drought in India's Silicon Valley, we look at unexpected ways to manage the world’s water.
Presenter Marnie Chesterton and panellists Chhavi Sachdev in Mumbai, India, and Meral Jamal in Nunavut, Canada, tell stories of innovative ideas being tried in their parts of the world.
Marnie meets water detective Barbara Sherwood Lollar, professor in earth sciences at the University of Toronto, to hear how ancient water can help us plan for the future. Plus, how submersible speakers can help corals, and stories of livi

Could geopolitical tensions around the Red Sea affect research into the region’s heat-resistant super corals? Also on the program, Chhavi Sachdev sheds light on what an ocean that used to lie under the Himalayas can tell us about evolution, the fruit chat continues with the latest chapter in the bananadine saga, and how looking to the past could help create the shipping of the future.

Brain implants have been sparking conversation about the future of humanity after Elon Musk's company Neuralink announced it has embedded a microchip in a human skull. Marnie Chesterton and the panel (Chhavi Sachdev & Kai Kupferschmid)discuss whether our privacy is at risk or whether we're already an open book.
Plus, Katie Tomsett looks at how tattoos could be used to indicate the health of our bodies. In Under the Radar we learn how batteries could one day charge through sound, we hear the story of an alleged spy pigeon caught in India, and we highlight the wonderful tale of a beluga whale.