the.com/samarium
the rare earth that makes magnets shrug off heat that melts lesser metals
means A silvery rare-earth metal (element 62) prized for making powerful permanent magnets that keep their strength at high temperatures, plus uses in lasers, nuclear control rods, and certain cancer treatments.
from Named after the mineral samarskite, in which it was first detected — and that mineral honored Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, a 19th-century Russian mining official. That makes samarium the first element named, however indirectly, after a living person. The element was isolated in 1879 by the French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who spotted its fingerprint in a sample of samarskite; the metal's name simply trailed the mineral's, carrying the old official's surname down into the periodic table.
- first mineral name
- named element samarskite, after a Russian mining official
- magnet beast
- samarium-cobalt magnets work past 300°C without quitting
- isotope clock
- samarium-147 decays so slowly it dates meteorites
- cancer fighter
- samarium-153 eases pain from bone tumors
- glow trick
- absorbs neutrons, used inside nuclear reactor controls
samarium-cobalt magnets — permanent magnets containing samarium and cobalt, used since the 1970s in motors and aerospace applications
samarium-151 — radioactive isotope with 90-year half-life, used in medical imaging and cancer treatment