Curated playlist
Lanthanides
- EuropiumEuropium is a metal so soft you can slice it with a kitchen knife. It also glows red inside color television screens.
- DysprosiumDysprosium got its name from a Greek word meaning "hard to get." A chemist needed over thirty tries in 1886.
- CeriumPrimo Levi bartered a stash of lighter-flint alloy for food at Auschwitz.
- TerbiumTwo elements, erbium and terbium, have had their names switched since the 1800s. Nobody has corrected it.
- YtterbiumIn 2013, two ytterbium atomic clocks set a record for stability.
- LanthanumLanthanum is named for the Greek word for "lie hidden". Carl Gustaf Mosander found it in 1839 inside cerium nitrate.
- PraseodymiumPraseodymium spent decades hidden inside a supposed element called didymium. An Austrian chemist split it in 1885.
- ErbiumErbium, a rare metal, turns water rose-pink when its ions dissolve. It is used inside fiber-optic cables.
- NeodymiumNeodymium hid inside another metal for decades. Chemists took it for one element, didymium, until 1885.
- GadoliniumGadolinium is toxic as a free ion, yet doctors inject it into veins. A protective wrapping makes it safe enough for MRI.
- SamariumSamarium is the first element named, indirectly, after a person. The honor went to a Russian mining chief.