Scientific breakthrough with mysterious cosmic metal could solve major crisis on Earth: ‘There’s been an urgent search’::“This result represents a total change in how we think about this material."

  • wyrmroot@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    TL;DR: Magnets. China makes almost all of them so any time we see something that might replace rare earth metals we get excited. In this case because a group made improvements to our ability to synthesize tetrataenite, an iron-nickel alloy, by adding phosphorus.

    • Lauchs@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I mean, it also seems much more easily mined so hopefully less environmentally destructive than the crazy stuff we for rare earth mineral mining.

      Edit: also, supply matters. If we can make much more of the necessary materials, price comes down, adoption increases etc.