Rainbow relishes benefits of a growing rare earths family

Rainbow relishes benefits of a growing rare earths family

RARE earths, it turns out, are a broad family of elements – 17 in all – any of which sound like the forbidden substance in a science fiction novel. Promethium, for instance. But it’s in actual science where the likes of scandium and samarium have their modern life relevance from making lighter sports equipment to manufacturing nuclear rods and the paint that makes car dashboards luminous at night. This apparent arcanery has practical economic re…