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Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth, by Keith Veronese
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How will your life change when the supply of tantalum dries up? You may have never heard of this unusual metal, but without it smartphones would be instantly less omniscient, video game systems would falter, and laptops fail. Tantalum is not alone. Rhodium. Osmium. Niobium. Such refugees from the bottom of the periodic table are key components of many consumer products like cell phones, hybrid car batteries, and flat screen televisions, as well as sophisticated medical devices and even weapon systems. Their versatile properties have led manufacturers to seek these elements out to maximize longevity, value, and efficiency, but not without a human price.
In addition to explaining the chemistry behind rare earth metals, Rare delves into the economic and geopolitical issues surrounding these “conflict minerals,” blending tales of financial and political struggles with glimpses into the human lives that are shattered by the race to secure them. In the past decade, the Congo has been ravaged by tribal wars fought to obtain control of tantalum, tungsten, and tin supplies in the region, with over five million people dying at the crossroads of supply and demand. A burgeoning black market in China, Africa, and India is propped up by school-age children retrieving and purifying these metals while risking their lives and health in the process. Fears of future political struggles inside China, the world’s largest supplier of these metals, have already sent the United States, Great Britain, and Japan racing to find alternative sources.
Will scientists be able to create lab substitutes for some or all of these metals? Will Afghanistan be the next big supplier of rare metals? What happens when the limited supply runs out? Whatever the answers, it is clear that our modern lifestyle, dependent on technology, is far from stable.
- Sales Rank: #151279 in Books
- Brand: Veronese, Keith
- Published on: 2015-01-06
- Released on: 2015-01-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.28" h x 1.03" w x 6.31" l, 1.25 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 270 pages
Review
"Engaging, eclectic.... Veronese's analyses of the various factors affecting supply of these metals adds up to a good overview.... Rare makes powerful points about the consequences of conspicuous consumption.
—Nature
"The underlying science is accessible and is deftly combined with comments on the often-overlooked societal implications of the planet's chemical make-up. Viewed as a kind of 'essential guide' to crucial elements, Rare outlines their increasing geopolitical importance in the modern world."
—BBC Focus Magazine
"Rare is a clear and entertaining account of the fascinating properties of rare earths, their importance to the world, and the unique roles only they can play in many high-tech devices."
—Theodore Gray, author of The Elements: A Visual Exploration and Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything
About the Author
Keith Veronese holds a PhD in Chemistry and has written for Gawker Media extensively, particularly for their science site io9. He has also written for Alpha Brand Media's family of websites and in magazines published by TwoMorrows Publishing. He is the author of Plugged In: Comic Book Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry.
Most helpful customer reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
A Wealth of Information
By George Poirier
I learned quite a bit from this fascinating book. The author’s main focus is on the rarity and/or value of various metals, e.g., the rare earths, gold, silver, platinum and several others. In doing so, he discusses our planet’s natural resources as well as their distribution, geology, chemistry and the technologies that would benefit from these metals. He also delves into various quite interesting issues such as politics, both national and international, military conflicts, economics, waste disposal and even the possibility of acquiring these metals from outside our planet.
I found the author’s breadth and depth of knowledge to be quite impressive, especially on the related socio-political issues in the world. I also found the writing style to be clear, lively, friendly, often witty and widely accessible.
On the down side, I found a number of inaccuracies mainly in the early chapters where nuclear physics is discussed. I have listed the main ones at the end of this review for those who are interested as well as for consideration by the author should a revised edition of this book be published in the future.
Overall, I found this book to be quite captivating. It can be enjoyed by anyone, particularly science enthusiasts as well as those interested in the social, political and scientific problems that may be faced in the development of new technology.
Inaccurate/Misleading Information
1) At the bottom of page 53, it seems to be implied that plutonium was used in both bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. In fact, the Hiroshima bomb was a uranium bomb.
2) Near the bottom of page 57, the Ivy Mike test is discussed where it is pointed out that it was a “twelve-kiloton explosion – four times the combined might of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. In fact the yield of the Ivy Mike test was about 10 megatons making it about 300 times the yield of the combined bombs dropped on Japan.
3) The discussion on the decay of carbon-14 on page 72 and its use in radiocarbon dating is incorrect. Carbon-14 decays by beta minus emission to stable nitrogen-14. What is used in carbon-14 dating is the concentration ratio of carbon-14 atoms relative to carbon-12 atoms in a formerly living organism - carbon-14 decaying at a known rate, thus decreasing the above ratio at a known rate over time. Carbon -14 is never stable, before or after the organism dies.
4) Regarding the creation of curium and americium, near the top of page 73, it should be noted that neither of these two elements have any stable isotopes.
5) Near the bottom of page 101, the inverse square law is discussed. In calculating the dose rate at a given distance from a source of ionizing radiation, several factors must be taken into account, e.g., nature of radiation, shielding, scattering, source shape, etc. If one is using the inverse square law, this implies that the source must be a point source as seen at the distance where the dose rate is being determined.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Accessible Introduction to Rare Metals
By c.d.k.
It is indeed rare that a book written by a chemist can be described as delightful, but "Rare" by Keith Veronese stands out as just that. Trough a well-written and very readable narrative, Veronese offers the reader both insight into why rare earth metals are becoming more and more important to everyday life as well as the broader history associated with the discoveries and uses of such metals. The book begins with a brief explanation of the difficulty of harvesting rare metals. He then moves into a discussion of what constitutes a rare metal and an examination of various metals and their histories. Rare metals influence everything from international politics and weaponry to smartphones and hybrid cars. As an example of their importance for our lives together in the future, I found the suggestion that cutting "off the rare earth supply line" would "end the green planet revolution" (42) rather chilling. Veronese's subsequent brainstorming for ways to creatively sustain the use of rare metals is therefore all the more interesting.
All in all, this book is excellent. I am no scientist—I majored in History and have a graduate degree in Theology—yet I was able to read this book and understand it. Truly, Veronese displays the ability to craft narrative and present scientific knowledge in an accessible and even exciting way, which is an underrated but much needed skill for writers. Moreover, I could see this book used in Intro to Chemistry college classes (and even in high school classes) to get students interested in ways Chemistry applies to everyday life. I highly recommend it.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Good info on an unusual subject.
By A Reviewer
This book covers a topic which most people would know little about. I found the book to be very interesting and I learned quite a lot about so called "strategic metals". I found a few errors in the book. Mostly typos and incorrect grammar that a good proofreader would have minimized. These occured mainly in the first 25% or so of the text. Also found were some instances of just being factually incorrect.
The Fat Man and Little Boy weapons that were deployed against Japan were both referred to as containing plutonium. Little Boy was a uranium bomb.
On page 57 phosphine was said to be a form of poison gas used in WW I. The gas used in the war was phosgene. Phosphine is commonly used to fumigate grain.
Gold is said to be a spectacular conductor and that is why it is used as a plating on HDMI cables and a plethora of computer parts. Silver is the best conductor followed by copper and then annealed copper. Next comes gold and then aluminum. Gold is used as a plating because it will not tarnish and is still a very good conductor.
On page 203 the feasibility of mining the ocean floor for manganese nodules comes up and also the ruse used by the United States of the Glomar Explorer supposedly built by Howard Hughes to conduct the mining operation. The United States was actually attempting to raise K-129, a submarine that the USSR owned which had gone missing after a catastrophic accident at sea. Veronese says that the Soviets knew the general location of the sub but couldn't locate it. They didn't actually have any good idea where it was. The US knew where it was from "hearing" the death throes of the sub with SOSUS, a network of listening devices on the ocean floor. Through triangulation they did locate the sub.
One of the more interesting subjects in the text (at least for me) was the possibility of mining the moon and asteroids. The asteroids named 4034 Vishnu and 2000 BM19 are said to be less than a kilometer in diameter and estimated to contain more than 20 trillion dollars of material. In spite of the scientists' alledged abilities to tell exactly the composition of an asteroid by the analysis of it's reflected light, I still have trouble believing that monetary value for asteroids of that size. Yes, I could be wrong however.
All in all though, it is a good read and most people would definitely learn something about an interesting subject.
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