Word: gadolinium
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...doctor?s lounge, I asked him "what's going on?" We talked about tests. It had to be his brain. His wise head therefore ordered itself shot through with x-rays, ultrasonic waves, magnet fields of strength found only around spinning stars, radio waves, injections of iodine, gadolinium, positron-emitting glucose. Many other brains were wracked for the sake of his; neurologists, neuroradiologists, infectious disease specialists. Tens of thousands of dollars of tests. No diagnosis...
Four years ago, a handful of scientists at a government-run South Korean nuclear research institute were experimenting with a gun that blasts laser beams at elements like gadolinium. The experiments weren't successful and the scientists decided to dismantle the equipment. But before they did, somebody suggested using the laser to enrich uranium?a process that produces the fuel for one type of nuclear bomb. "Scientists are full of curiosity," explains Chang In Soon, president of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, where the experiment took place. "They're interested in this kind of thing...
...want to make a statement with a really, really expensive metal, you could go with osmium. My personal favorite is gadolinium. When you say it fast, it sings. On the more fanciful side, californium, for the laid-back customer, einsteinium, for the exceptionally wise money manager, neptunium, for stratospheric credit limits, and, for those just starting out, lead. --Tim Foecke, metallurgist, National Institute of Standards and Technology
...commercial metals are so scarce as a group of 15 known as the "rare earths." They are so rare, in fact, that there is some question as to whether one of them exists at all. They have tongue-twisting names (praseodymium, gadolinium, cerium, lanthanum, ytterbium, etc.), are found in rare mineral deposits, mostly in India and Brazil. Until recently, the metals had limited uses...
Lately the struggle toward Absolute Zero has been led by Holland's University of Leyden and the University of California, both of which have tremendous magnets. For the final push they used highly magnetic salts-gadolinium sulphate octahydrate in California, cerium fluoride in Leyden. In 1933 Leyden was within .27° C. of Absolute Zero. Then California got it down to .16°. Then Leyden reached...