Andrea Sella - Terra Rara: The strange story of some political elements

Rare earth elements - the 14 or so elements with romantic names such as neodymium, gadolinium and dysprosium - have been very much in the news over the past five years. Their niche uses in electronics and in the renewable energy industry make them indispensable to today's society. Yet most people know nothing about them or why they have become so controversial.

Andrea Sella gives an introduction to the lanthanide elements and considers the features which made them a maddening puzzle for the chemists of the 19th century, how they are a key example of turning swords into ploughshares, and their role in bringing these very words to your computer screen. With growing concern that the world may soon face a shortage of the rare earths Andrea also considers the political and economic ramifications of their distribution and technology.

[TheRoyalInstitution]

Glad you're enjoying them! This is a great talk from Andrea - with some lovely stories from the history of science.

[bogdantw]

Stunning talk, wish we could find more stuff with Sella.
He's definitely one of the best science has to offer.
Very deep interdisciplinary knowledge, excellent speaker and very humble as well.
Some of the best 78 minutes I've ever spent watching videos online.
Thank you R.I. and thanks Andrea!

[TheRoyalInstitution]

Watch Prof Andrea Sella explore the chemistry and politics of rare earth metals Andrea Sella - Terra Rara: The strange story of some political elements

[jacobclaypool]

Why isn't this on main line tv and media. Like really this was very well put together and very enjoyable to watch and listen to. I mean I couldn't stop watching this. Then after I watched it. I watched it again. There was so much useful info in there and so many lil Easter eggs everywhere. Honestly if I had a teacher like this growing up I would of done something. I really enjoyed science call but my school didn't have a normal science class like poeple see on TV and in movies. Like I never did 1 experiment or anything interesting . All we did was just read out of a book and answer questions. Whenever I got order I started to learn about organic chemistry and really want to and am study it on my spare time. But the whole time I was in public school I didn't lean a thing. Honestly i learned everything I know from the TV show modern marvelous and this 1 science show I watch.

[jackgabone]

Always loved chemistry and the presenter's depth of knowledge and ability to explain in simple terms( relatively speaking) literally kept my eyes glued to the screen. Great work and thanks to the RI for always delivering on its mission to disseminate knowledge.

[richardbloemenkamp]

Superb talk, one of the best RI talks.

[lordofelectrons]

I enjoyed all the side trips into various bits of history brought about by these unusual elements, particularly the Didymium glasses demo.
As a former scientific glass blower I directly benefited from the innovation and have my original pair in my tool kit.

[lesconrads]

Amazing talk! Thank you so much for sharing this with the world!

[xafar]

I didn't think I would enjoy this as much a other presentations, and I was very wrong. Brilliant talk from a fabulous presenter

[FormulaPontiac]

Fantastic interesting talk - Thank you for uploading it for all the world to enjoy and learn from

[ligelowbee]

Incredibly compelling talk. I'm now fully stoked for this terms chemistry. After watching this I picked up a copy of Primo Levi's "The Periodic Table". It is not at all the sort of book I was expecting. Full of stories of family, friends, language, history. It is wonderful, I'm loving it, and I just wanted to say thanks for the enthusiastic recommendation (@ 1:17:00).

[reddev]

I love these videos. This channel deserves more views!

[TheRoyalInstitution]

That's great to hear. Lots more chemistry related videos on the channel to check out.

[alansharples]

Please improve the initial titling so that it can be found more easily .Brilliant lecturer !

[TheRoyalInstitution]

We tend to host a Friday Evening Discourse once a month, we'll try bring you a few more of these before Christmas!

[avhuf]

Great Video!! Incredibly fascinating. Congratulations to the speaker for the enthusiastic talk.

[frankblangeard]

Kind of ironic that this absolutely brilliant man would fail to use the GoPro properly.

[confuseatronica]

note that diamond shaped tiles in 3 colors are not Penrose tiles, but they really look like they are

[losFondos]

Grazie per questa fantastica lezione! E complimenti per aver citato l'opera di Primo Levii!

[GeneralNgo]

It's impossible to modify and NOT know. I've only known 3 people to delete their cat out of a 8500 member community and, of those three, none of them are daily driven cars. High-flow cats are generally accepted as the upgrade for factory catalytic converters. The way I modifying exhaust system has shown an increase of 1-3 MPG and 15-17% increase in rear wheel horsepower (RWHP) so I don't think it would be smart to stop it.