Rare

October 27, 2014
In this work of popular science, journalist Veronese (Plugged In: Comic Book Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry) delivers a scattershot account of the discovery and chemistry of metals, addressing their critical roles in technology and the cutthroat struggles over extraction, trade, and recycling. Despite the absence of an overarching theme, readers won’t be bored. Veronese focuses to some degree on the political and environmental challenges related to meeting global demand for the “rare earths”—17 metals with odd names (yttrium, terbium, dysprosium) essential for the production of high-tech electronics—repeatedly returning to this subject before wandering off on tangents. Topics of interest include thorium, which turns up as a clean source of nuclear power, and polonium, a poison used in political assassinations. A chapter discusses daredevil American hobbyists who extract precious metals from discarded electronics and addresses the massive Third World dumps where thousands make a miserable living doing the same. Veronese also discusses Afghanistan, whose vast untapped mineral resources hold the potential to ease its political problems. Though most of his subject minerals are obscure and relatively unknown even to educated readers, Veronese presents an informative and entertaining, if disorganized, overview of the metallurgy and politics of rare metals. Photo insert. Agent: Laura Wood, FinePoint Literary Management.

January 1, 2015

The general public is likely to hear the term rare earth metals and think of gold, silver, and maybe platinum; but to chemists, it conjures a completely different picture. These 17 elements are present in small amounts around the world, with larger concentrations in a handful of places, particularly China. Here Veronese (chemistry writer, io9 website; Plugged In: Comic Book Professionals Working in the Video Game Industry) attempts to explore the politics, economics, and uses of these elements. Unfortunately, the objective becomes confused when the author at various times chooses to discuss the truly rare metals (e.g., gold, platinum, and beryllium) instead of the rare earth elements that he establishes early as the true focus of the book. He even decides to discuss graphene, a form of carbon, which is anything but rare. While its topics are certainly intriguing, the book suffers from a lack of direction as well as some poor choices of analogies and metaphors. VERDICT Recommended for scientists interested in the less-explored elements of the periodic table and those curious about the politics and economics of rare (earth) metals.--John Kromer, Miami Univ. of Ohio Lib., Oxford, OH

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