Material Matters: The Past and Present of the Rare Earth Elements Essential to Our Future

Roger Turner

Science History Institute

Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:30 am EST

315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
United States

Please register for the event.
 
Research fellow Roger Turner hosts the February gathering of the Joseph Priestley Society.
 
The lanthanides have been known as “rare earths” since the late 18th century. Hard to separate and hard to study, these elements troubled chemists for a century and a half. After a brilliant young chemist destined for tragedy used them to rationalize atomic numbers just before World War I, they languished for decades, as afterthoughts floating at the bottom of the periodic table. But the quirk of quantum chemistry that makes the rare earths so hard to separate has recently made them essential to electronics and the green technologies we’ll need to avert climate destabilization. Mining them is toxic, however, and production is currently dominated by China. This talk uses the history of “rare earth” to explore how we might rethink lanthanide production in ways that enhance democracy and don’t create environmental sacrifice zones.
 

Event Schedule
11:30 a.m.
Networking Reception
 
12:15 p.m.
Luncheon
 
1:00 p.m.
Program
 
This program is presented in celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table.