What are rare earth elements and why are they important?
Rare earth minerals are used in almost every technology you can think of.
They're present in cellphones, medical devices, wind turbines, weapons and much more.
But what are they? And why are they important? And are they actually rare?
:: What are rare earths and why are they important?
:: Julie Michelle Klinger, Geographer
'So the term rare earth elements, it refers to 17 chemically similar elements within the Lanthanide series.'
This is Professor Julie Michelle Klinger, a geographer and senior visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences.
'So, if you can picture the periodic table, it's that bar at the bottom. Elements 57 to 71 plus scandium and yttrium.'
Reuters' special correspondent on commodities, Eric Onstad, has a bit of the history.
:: Eric Onstad, Specialist Correspondent, Commodities, Reuters
'The elements were first discovered by a Swedish miner in 1787 near a village called Ytterby and that's reflected in the name of two rare earths, yttrium and ytterbium. Another rare earth, promethium, was named by the wife of one of the discoverers after the Greek god who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. China is by far the dominant producer. They account for 60% of mine production and 90% of processed rare earths. But interestingly, this wasn't always the case. In the 1980s, for instance, the United States was the biggest producer and Europe had one of the biggest processing plants in the world.'
:: What are they used for?
KLINGER: 'They are often described as the vitamins or the spice of industry because they have enabled our technologies to get smaller and faster and stronger and more resilient.'
Elements like lanthanum and cerium, some of the most common rare earths, are used in TVs and lighting...
While the application of erbium and yttrium can range from nuclear power to lasers.
ONSTAD: 'There are two broad categories that have really got the spotlight. The first one is military uses, and that can be from night goggles, to precision missiles, to radar. And of course, that is a very sensitive issue for nations wanting to guard their access to those kinds of minerals. The second area is regarding the energy transition. And there are four specific rare earths that are used to make super-strong permanent magnets that are used in motors for electric vehicle and for wind turbines. So that is key for most nations' zero-carbon targets and cutting greenhouse gases.'
:: What is the environmental impact of extraction?
KLINGER: 'It's really because of the challenges, the heavy energy and resource and pollution risks that are associated with refining rare earth elements, that production has concentrated historically in so few places.'
Processing rare earths often involves the use of solvents, which can produce toxic waste.
More environmentally friendly technologies are being developed, but they are not yet widely used.
ONSTAD: 'The other issue is that some rare earth deposits are radioactive. They include uranium and thorium. And so, some countries are not interested in having that be mined in their country.'
:: Are they actually rare?
But are they actually rare? Not really...
ONSTAD: 'They are found all over the world. And in terms of the deposits, no, they are not actually rare. What's rare about them is sometimes they are found in very small quantities. And in addition to that, they're mixed with all kinds of other minerals. So, the difficulty is sometimes extracting each single rare earth from all the other minerals that are involved in the deposit. "
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
New type of supernova detected as black hole causes star to explode
(Corrects reference to Gagliano to lead author in paragraph 3 instead of co-author) By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Astronomers have observed the calamitous result of a star that picked the wrong dance partner. They have documented what appears to be a new type of supernova, as stellar explosions are known, that occurred when a massive star tried to swallow a black hole with which it had engaged in a lengthy pas de deux. The star, which was at least 10 times as massive as our sun, and the black hole, which had a similar mass, were gravitationally bound to one another in what is called a binary system. But as the distance separating them gradually narrowed, the black hole's immense gravitational pull appears to have distorted the star - stretching it out from its spherical shape - and siphoned off material before causing it to explode. "We caught a massive star locked in a fatal tango with a black hole," said astrophysicist Alexander Gagliano of the U.S. National Science Foundation's Institute for AI and Fundamental Interactions located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, lead author of the study published this week in the Astrophysical Journal. "After shedding mass for years in a death spiral with the black hole, the massive star met its finale by exploding. It released more energy in a second than the sun has across its entire lifetime," Gagliano added. The explosion occurred about 700 million light-years from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). "The gravitational pulls of the two objects were actually similar because we think they had similar masses. But the star was much larger, so it was in the process of engulfing the black hole as the black hole pulled material off of it. The star was large but puffy, and the black hole was small but mighty. The black hole won out in the end," Gagliano said. The researchers are not certain of the exact mechanism that caused the supernova. "It's unclear if the distortion triggers an instability that drives the collapse of the star, and then the leftover stellar material gets rapidly eaten by the black hole, or if the black hole completely pulls the star apart before it goes supernova," said Harvard University astrophysicist and study co-author Ashley Villar. "The star has been pulled and morphed by the black hole in complex ways," Villar added. The binary system started out with two massive stars orbiting each other as cosmic companions. But one of the two stars reached the end of its natural life cycle and exploded in a supernova, and its core collapsed to form a black hole, an extraordinarily dense object with gravity so strong that not even light can escape. "This event reveals that some supernovae can be triggered by black hole companions, giving us new insights into how some stars end their lives," Villar said. Stars that are at least eight times as massive as the sun appear destined to end their lives with a supernova. Those with a mass at least 20 times that of the sun will form a black hole after the explosion. An artificial intelligence algorithm designed to scan for unusual explosions in the cosmos in real time first detected the beginnings of the explosion, providing an alert that enabled astronomers to carry out follow-up observations immediately. By the time the explosion was completed, it had been observed by numerous ground-based and space-based telescopes. "Our AI algorithm allowed us to launch a comprehensive observational study early enough to really see the full picture for the first time," Gagliano said. Observations of the star dating to four years before the supernova revealed bright emissions that the astronomers believe were caused when the black hole guzzled material sucked off the star. For instance, the star's outer hydrogen layer appears to have been ripped off, exposing the helium layer below. The researchers observed bright emissions in the explosion's aftermath as the black hole consumed leftover stellar debris. In the end, the black hole became more massive and more powerful. Systems grouping two or more companions are quite common. Some of these multiples have a black hole as one of the companions. "Our takeaway is that the fates of stars are incredibly impacted by their companion - or companions - in life. This event gives us an exciting window into how dramatically black holes can impact the deaths of massive stars," Gagliano said. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Humanoid machine face-plants at China's inaugural ‘robot Olympics'
A robot drew cheers from the packed crowd at China's inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games — until it spectacularly face-planted and had to be hauled off stage by two real people. The pratfall during Thursday's opening ceremony in Beijing offered a fitting window into the limitations of the machines during the three-day showcase of robotic ambition. More than 500 humanoid robots from 280 teams across 16 countries gathered to compete in everything from soccer to sprinting, with mixed results. 4 A humanoid robot face-plants at China's first World Humanoid Robot Games, prompting two humans to carry it off stage. ABC Teams from the United States, Germany, Japan and Brazil brought their mechanical athletes to compete alongside Chinese universities including Tsinghua and Peking, plus three ambitious middle schools. But the robots had other plans. During soccer matches, four mechanical players crashed into each other and collapsed in a tangled heap of metal limbs. In the 1,500-meter dash, one sprinting robot suddenly toppled mid-stride at full speed, drawing gasps and unexpected cheers from the crowd, who paid between $25-$80 to witness the future of artificial intelligence. 'We come here to play and to win. But we are also interested in research,' said Max Polter from Germany's HTWK Robots football team, affiliated with Leipzig University of Applied Sciences. 'You can test a lot of interesting new and exciting approaches in this contest. If we try something and it doesn't work, we lose the game. That's sad but it is better than investing a lot of money into a product which failed.' 4 While several robots took a spill and needed help getting up, many managed to recover on their own. ABC The opening ceremony mixed genuine technological achievement with comedic mishaps. Robots danced to hip-hop music, performed martial arts and played musical instruments including keyboards, guitars and drums. Some executed backflips and celebratory cheers like real athletes, while others demonstrated soccer skills and boxing moves. One robotic soccer player managed to score a goal after several attempts, causing the humanoid goalkeeper to dramatically fall to the ground in apparent despair. Another player tumbled but impressively stood up without human assistance, earning applause from spectators. Despite frequent falls requiring human helpers to right the toppled machines, many robots demonstrated the ability to recover independently. 4 A mechanical sprinter runs during the event, drawing gasps and cheers from the Beijing crowd. WU HAO/EPA/Shutterstock Organizers emphasized that these public failures provide valuable data for developing practical applications in factories and assembly lines. Soccer matches help train coordination abilities that could prove useful for collaborative manufacturing operations requiring multiple robotic units to work together, commentators explained. China is pouring billions into humanoid robotics as the nation confronts an aging population and escalating technological competition with the United States. The country has staged multiple high-profile robotics events recently, including what it claimed was the world's first humanoid robot marathon and the opening of retail stores dedicated to mechanical workers. 4 A humanoid boxer squares off in the ring, showcasing China's AI-powered robotics ambitions despite frequent mechanical mishaps. WU HAO/EPA/Shutterstock Morgan Stanley analysts noted a surge in public attendance at recent robot conferences compared to previous years, suggesting widespread Chinese embrace of what experts call 'embodied intelligence.' A government official quoted in the state-run People's Daily declared that every participating robot 'is creating history' during the event. Whether that history involves graceful athletic achievement or spectacular mechanical failures remains to be seen. With Post Wires
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Biomechanics study shows how T. rex and other dinosaurs fed on prey
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Tyrannosaurus subdued prey with raw power, using bone-crushing bite force. But other meat-eating dinosaurs that rivaled T. rex in size used different approaches. Giganotosaurus relied more on slashing and ripping flesh. And the long and narrow snout of Spinosaurus was well-adapted for catching fish. Researchers have documented the feeding biomechanics of meat-eating dinosaurs in a comprehensive analysis of the skull design and bite force of 17 species that prowled the landscape at various times from the dawn to the twilight of the age of dinosaurs. The study found that Tyrannosaurus possessed by far the highest estimated bite force, with a heavily reinforced skull and massive jaw muscles. But it showed that other dinosaur predators evolved successful approaches to bringing down prey even without matching the T. rex chomp. "We found that large predatory dinosaurs didn't all evolve the same kind of skull to deal with the challenges of feeding at massive size," said vertebrate paleontologist Andre Rowe of the University of Bristol in England, lead author of the study published this month in the journal Current Biology. "Some, like T. rex, reinforced the skull to tolerate extremely high bite forces and the associated skull stresses. Others, like Allosaurus or Spinosaurus, went with lighter or possibly flexible builds that spread out stress in different ways. There's no single 'correct' way to be a giant meat-eater, and that's the point," Rowe added. The study focused on species within the group, or clade, called theropods that includes the meat-eating dinosaurs. They ran from Herrerasaurus, which lived in Argentina about 230 million years ago and is one of the earliest-known dinosaurs, all the way to T. rex, which was present in western North America when an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago and ended the age of dinosaurs. The researchers used three-dimensional models of the skulls of the 17 species, including two different specimens of Tyrannosaurus, and applied a method for simulating how structures respond to physical stress. They estimated muscle forces using digital muscle reconstructions based on living relatives of the dinosaurs - birds and crocodiles - then applied those forces to the skull models to simulate bites. "Our focus wasn't raw bite force. We were testing how the skulls distributed that force under load, and how these distributions varied by each lineage of carnivores," Rowe said. The early theropods examined in the study such as Herrerasaurus, which lived during the middle of the Triassic Period, and Dilophosaurus, which lived early in the Jurassic Period, exhibited much lower stress resistance than their later counterparts. They were lightly built dinosaurs and not well adapted to high bite forces, Rowe said. The increase in bite force and skull strength unfolded gradually over time, reaching its apex with Tyrannosaurus and its close relatives in a lineage called tyrannosaurs such as Daspletosaurus and Albertosaurus, which like T. rex appeared late in the Cretaceous Period. "In tyrannosaurs, there's a big jump in skull strength and bite mechanics, coinciding with deeper skulls, more robust bone architecture and changes in jaw muscle attachment. So the ramp-up wasn't immediate. It evolved over time and in certain lineages more than others," Rowe said. Tyrannosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus were three of the largest theropods, but their skulls were quite different. Perhaps the largest-known Tyrannosaurus is a specimen named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago, at 40-1/2 feet (12.3 meters) long. Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus rivaled T. rex in size. Giganotosaurus lived in Argentina in the middle of the Cretaceous, while Spinosaurus inhabited North Africa at around the same time, both predating Tyrannosaurus by roughly 30 million years. "Giganotosaurus was large, but its skull wasn't built for the same kind of high-force feeding as T. rex. Spinosaurus had a long, narrow snout, which is consistent with a diet focused on fishing, though we have fossilized evidence that it ate other animals, such as pterosaurs," Rowe said, referring to the flying reptiles that were cousins of the dinosaurs. One of the key takeaway messages, Rowe said, is that giant body size did not funnel all theropods toward the same design. Stronger bite force was one strategy, but not the only one, Rowe added. "Some animals win with raw power, others by striking quickly or repeatedly. What we're seeing here is a spectrum of ecological adaptations. These animals weren't all trying to be T. rex clones. They were solving the same problem in different ways," Rowe added. "That kind of evolutionary flexibility," Rowe added, "probably helped them dominate ecosystems for so long." Solve the daily Crossword
