8 Elements You Might Not Know That Are Extremely Useful

There are 118 elements on the periodic table, but it seems like only a handful of them get any attention. But just because you haven't heard of an element doesn't mean that it isn't a vital part of everyday life! Learn about these lesser known yet important elements in a new episode of SciShow! Hosted by Michael Aranda.
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[Alverant]

I think you should do a few more episodes like this.

[NT_Chris]

Americium is used for *ionic* smoke detectors. But now days it is *optical* smoke detectors that are commonly bought / used. It just use LED light and a photocell to detect the light from the LED. If smoke gets in the way, the detector will go off.

[llamamall]

Praseodynium isn't well known? I guess you could say it has...


Bad Pr.

[medjed]

My life always gets a little better when I get a chemistry video
Thank you SciShow <3

[Hadaron]

I’m a bit sad Palladium wasn’t even mentioned! There’s some groundbreaking research going on where Palladium and gold have been used in lasers to eradicate cancer cells. (That, and it’s one of the first Hardmode ores in Terraria.)

[myysterio]

I want to hear about the useless ones.

[NitratedFilms]

Scandium is probably the most underrated one. It's used in light but strong alloys for things like baseball bats, bicycle frames to fighter aircrafts, metal-halide lamps, and in some lasers.

[Master_Therion]

One lesser known element is Hipsterite... yeah, you've probably never heard of it.

[CynthiaPrice]

Fun fact: I'm allergic to gadolinium. At least in the IV form used during MRIs. I know this because I had a heart attack and extreme anaphylaxis on the table during an MRI after they put it in my IV. Supposedly "no one is allergic to gadolinium!" I think all the people I've met since then, online or in person, who have also had reactions, would beg to differ right along with me. Stridently.

[roguedruid]

Doped yag lasers sounds like some sort of metal band.

[knucklecorn]

Pfft, everyone's heard of Neodymium

[EebstertheGreat]

These elements may not be so well known by most people, but they are pretty significant as rare metals go. I would love to see a video about truly obscure elements like lutetium and dysprosium.

[Epicmonk]

Another use for antimony: it's alloyed with lead to make it hard and strong enough to withstand the kinetic energy imparted on it by certian combustion reactions within specially designed metal chambers

[GoldInforcer]

Could you do a video on the rarely-used, lesser known elements?

[Rubikscube]

A really cool and informative segment I would love to see would be going through every element on the periodic table explaining its uses and its toxicity if any to humans. Also how abundant the elements are on earth as well as in the universe.

[phantasm]

Can you do one on cerebral aneurysms? I had one rupture at 19 and would love to learn more!

[micahphilson]

Neodymium is pretty well known because of magnets.

[mindovermanners_]

You should do a video on superconductors!

[alguemalguem]

The thing I most often go to when I hear about osmium is osmium tetroxide, used for fixing and staining samples for optical and electron microscopy. A biology teacher in high school really drove home it's toxic when explaining how it worked.

[WhileTrueCode]

Another interesting use for Gadolinium is in digital x-ray as a scintillator- when x-rays strike Gadolinium Oxysulfide (GdOS) it results in a secondary transmission of visible light, which photodiodes pick up to produce the pixel values in a modern radiograph. However by now, the more expensive and more sensitive Cesium Iodide (CsI) has pretty much taken over that role- even in low end systems.