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Rare earths - Is there a substitute?
Accessible supplies of neodymium and 16 other rare earth elements -- which occupy those two orphaned rows at the bottom of the periodic table -- are running short. China, which controls supplies of 97% of these materials, doesn't like sharing them with the West. And the only U.S. mine for rare earth elements went out of production after a radioactive waste accident in the 1990s. I didn't hear about this. Was it really that bad? Throw in the fact that rare earth elements are important to all kinds of technologies -- they're the reason smartphones vibrate, why TVs have vivid reds and greens, and how computer hard drives are able to etch data -- and you've got a recipe that scares many technologists and researchers. Hey, what's so bad about floppy drives? Hadjipanayis and the other researchers are using nanotechnology to essentially remix the recipe for today's strongest magnets. Call my mother-in-law. She can make anything out of nothing in the kitchen. Hadjipanayis said he feels like he's trying to cram 100 years' worth of work into the three years that make up his Energy Department contract. He visits the lab daily to check on the progress. He worries about the high risk involved. Oh no! No more Posted by: gorb 2011-03-10 |
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