The lanthanoids, or rare-earth elements, are essential to the modern world. We interact with these substances but we don’t know them. We know about copper pipes and iron railings and aluminum cans and stuff like that, but the little bits and pieces of our high-tech world are mostly invisible to us. Nonetheless there is a growing global demand for elements 57 through 71.

Neodymium (Nd, #60) is a little different as most of us have heard of neodymium magnets. These were discovered in the 1980s at a couple of corporate labs and are currently the strongest commercially-available magnets. The alloy is a combination of neodymium, iron, and boron and is called NIB or Neo or NdFeB (the formula is Nd₂Fe₁₄B).

They are used in computer hard drives and electric motors and countless other places. You’ve seen them around because they can be purchased for home use:

You have to be careful with those things. Two NIB magnets will snap together suddenly and with a lot of force and good luck getting them apart! If you stick something to the fridge you can expect it to stay in place.

Next up: Magnesium (Mg), #12