Word: ytterbium
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...several years, Bell scientists have been experimenting with thin wafers of crystalline materials known as orthoferrites, which are compounds of iron oxides and such rare-earth minerals as ytterbium, thulium and samarium-terbium. They found that when a strong enough magnetic field is applied, orthoferrites display an extraordinary property: tiny cylinder-shaped areas, or "bubbles," of magnetism are formed in the wafer, their polarity opposite to that of the surrounding material. Often smaller in diameter than a human hair, the magnetic bubbles can be maneuvered and positioned into an almost endless variety of patterns...
...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...
...individuals by hypothetical count. He had them all assembled in the university's rare earths laboratory, and his procedure was to isolate them one by one, scrutinize them closely, and put them to one side positively identified as Oxygen, Gold, Barium, Chlorine, etc., etc.-old friends-or as Ytterbium, Lutecium, Praseodymium, etc., etc.-individuals that are rarely seen and have been introduced to science comparatively recently...
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