News tagged with earth metals

Physicists show standard 'quasiparticle' theory breaks down at 'quantum critical point'

A new study this week finds that "quantum critical points" in exotic electronic materials can act much like polarizing "hot button issues" in an election. Reporting in Nature, researchers from Rice Univer ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Honda will recycle rare-earth metals from batteries

(Phys.org) -- Honda Motor Co. this week made news with its announcement of a recycling breakthrough. The car maker, which manufactures hybrid vehicles, will start recycling rare-earth metals from the nickel-metal ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 19, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 6 | with audio podcast report

Strong bonds between rare-earth metals and graphene

(PhysOrg.com) -- Transistors and information storage devices are getting smaller and smaller. But, to go as small as the nanoscale, scientists must understand how just a few atoms of metals behave when deposited ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Sep 28, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Where does all the gold come from?

Ultra high precision analyses of some of the oldest rock samples on Earth by researchers at the University of Bristol provides clear evidence that the planet's accessible reserves of precious metals are the ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 07, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (24) | comments 36 | with audio podcast

Japanese researchers develop EV motor not reliant on rare earth metals

Japanese researchers working out of Tokyo University of Science, have built what they describe as a motor for electric cars that does not require so-called rare earth metals; a move that could drive down the costs for such ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Jul 27, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (17) | comments 25 | with audio podcast report

More than meets the eye: New blue light nanocrystals

Berkeley Lab researchers have produced non-toxic magnesium oxide nanocrystals that efficiently emit blue light and could also play a role in long-term storage of carbon dioxide, a potential means of tempering ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 1

When stellar metallicity sparks planet formation

New research predicts the criteria needed for Earth-like planets to form around a star that have one-tenth the metallicity of our Sun. If researchers find small, rocky planets orbiting stars with lower metallicity, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Clean energy could lead to scarce materials

As the world moves toward greater use of low-carbon and zero-carbon energy sources, a possible bottleneck looms, according to a new MIT study: the supply of certain metals needed for key clean-energy technologies.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (8) | comments 25 | with audio podcast

Shift to green energy sources could mean crunch in supply of scarce metals

A large-scale shift from coal-fired electric power plants and gasoline-fueled cars to wind turbines and electric vehicles could increase demand for two already-scarce metals — available almost exclusively ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 07, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (12) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Hoping for mining boom, Canada opens last frontier

Dropping beneath low-lying clouds, a float plane circles a rocky landscape on the edge of the Arctic Circle grooved by the last ice age eight millennia ago and since then bathed by hundreds of rivers and lakes.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 25, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 12

Earth's rarest metals ranked in supply risk list

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new list published by the British Geological Survey, or BGS, ranks 52 of Earth's elements based on their risk of supply disruption. Andrew Bloodworth, from BGS, points out that the likeli ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 14, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

Chinese researchers look at possibility of capturing asteroids in Earth orbit

(PhysOrg.com) -- In an interesting twist regarding the study of asteroids and what happens when they come close to our planet, Hexi Baoyin and his two colleagues, Yang Chen and Junfeng Li at Tsinghua University ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (10) | comments 28 | with audio podcast weblog

Rock rafts could be 'cradle of life'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Floating rafts of volcanic pumice could have played a significant role in the origins of life on Earth, scientists from Oxford University and the University of Western Australia have suggested.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 02, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Ocean floor muddies China's grip on '21st-century gold'

China's monopoly over rare-earth metals could be challenged by the discovery of massive deposits of these hi-tech minerals in mud on the Pacific floor, a study on Sunday suggests.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 03, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 21

Putting the squeeze on rare earth metals

(PhysOrg.com) -- Rare-earth metals are a series of elements that represent one of the final frontiers of chemical exploration. The vigorous reactivity of these substances, however, has made it difficult for ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast