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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1 |
Ytterby, village in Sweden where the rare-earth minerals were first found
What was so special about Ytterby? No less than four rare earth elements were found there and named for the village: not just Erbium, but also Terbium, Ytterbium, and Yttrium.
What are the chances that four new substances will be first found in the same small village where a scientist just happens to be working? Are the "rare earths" really more common than the name implies, and might have been found near just about any laboratory if the right person had been looking?
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,549 Likes: 1 |
First I've heard of it.
Googling 'mineral macedonia' gives 43,000 hits. Googling 'mineral macedonia "age of the sun"' gives a big fat zero. FWIW.
It does sound, however, like someone trying to perpeuate an urban myth, old or just-begotten. I's have to say I'm sceptical. Interested, but still sceptical. I'll keep the ears open, though.
But then, I don't generally get first reports, I just remember having read about it in Scientific American once upon a time, or maybe Godel Escher Bach. (For example, Sci Am had one of their "How Things Work" pages just a couple of years ago on the subject of automatic gas-pump shut-off valves...)
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