Short answers, pulled from the story.
French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran isolated samarium in 1879 from the mineral samarskite. He identified the substance through sharp optical absorption lines that did not match any known metal at the time.
Samarium concentrates up to 2.8% within minerals like monazite and bastnäsite which serve as primary commercial sources today. China dominates this market by mining 120,000 tonnes per year while global resources total approximately two million tonnes.
Samarium-149 acts as a powerful neutron absorber with a cross section of 41,000 barns for thermal neutrons. This isotope forms naturally during reactor operation and builds up to equilibrium concentrations over approximately 500 hours or three weeks.
Samarium-cobalt magnets possess permanent magnetization roughly 10,000 times stronger than iron yet remain stable above 200 degrees Celsius. A single F-35 fighter jet incorporates approximately one kilogram of samarium magnets into its systems to resist demagnetization better than neodymium-based alternatives.
Samaria-153 serves as the active component in Quadramet drug formulations used to treat lung cancer prostate cancer breast cancer and osteosarcoma. This beta emitter has a half-life of 46.285 hours and kills cancer cells when injected intravenously.