One of the most unheralded sites of scientific discovery in history is a rock quarry on the outskirts of the small Swedish village Ytterby. The site opened in the 1700s to feed European porcelain fads, but soon reports began to circulate of strange materials coming forth from the Earth. The mine ended up being the site of discovery of seven new elements, four of which are named after the town. Tom Scott went to visit it.
Johan Gadolin was sent here in 1792, where he eventually discovered the first rare earth metal, yttrium, through his friend Carl Axel Arrhenius. A follower of the concurrent French Revolution, Arrehenius idealized French chemist Antonie Lavoisier, who had a few years earlier in 1789 put forward the basic theory that elements existed.
Inspired by Lavoisier's ideas, Arrehein was puzzled by the discovery at Ytterby and sent a rock to Gadolin. Gadolin managed, with considerable difficulty, to do what others had failed: melt the stone down into a blow-pipe. He got a brown, bubbly, substance. Gadolin changed temperatures on the substance, introduced nitric acid, water, copper oxide, sodium carbonate and a various others while noting what effects they had. By 1794, Gadolin realized that he was onto something big: "It is not without great trepidation," he wrote to a friend, "I dare speak of a new earth."
He called his discovery yttrium in honor of where it was discovered. By 1797, Gadolin's results were confirmed by fellow scientists and humanity had its first rare earth metal. What would follow in the field would prove crucial to how we live today.
What Gadolin did, as Scott notes in the video, basic science. The methods that Gadolin uses today are similar to what chemists do today, and their discoveries still have the ability to change the world to the extend that Gadolin did.
David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.
