RARER EARTHS WANT TO KEEP THE GADGETS FLOWING? MINE GREENLAND

摘要

Without neodymium, your ears would be sad. The magnetic fields generated by drivers made of this strange metal, a component of high-end speakers, create the crisp vibrations your brain interprets as yourfavoriteWeezer album. Without dysprosium, Prius owners would be sad. A little added dysprosium will shield neodymium magnets from distortion by heat, crucial for the setup that powers the motors in. many hybrid and electric cars. Or consider lutetium. Without it there would be no PET scans. Without yttrium crystals, lasers would be less bright. Chemists call them lanthanides; you know them as /rare earth metals. But by any name, they behave in ways that other matter simply can't: They have piles of electrons, but unlike most elements they don't stash them tidily, filling up one orbital shell before moving up to the next. They prefer, instead, to toss some up to higher levels, orbitals that -go unused by many metals, like dusty closet shelves onto which you have tippy-toed shoeboxes of old love letters. This makes them act... odd.