![Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Ramesh Bhave co-invented a process to recover high-purity rare earth elements from scrapped magnets of computer hard drives (shown here) and other post-consumer wastes. Credit: Carlos Jones/Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2019-08/01%20-%202019-P01551.jpg?h=036a71b7&itok=HiVIBieH)
Rare earth elements are the “secret sauce” of numerous advanced materials for energy, transportation, defense and communications applications.
Rare earth elements are the “secret sauce” of numerous advanced materials for energy, transportation, defense and communications applications.
More than 1800 years ago, Chinese astronomers puzzled over the sudden appearance of a bright “guest star” in the sky, unaware that they were witnessing the cosmic forge of a supernova, an event repeated countless times scattered across the universe.