Essential for medical imaging, supplies of this manmade element are far from guaranteed. Read more
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Technetium
Essential for medical imaging, supplies of this manmade element are far from guaranteed.
Oxygen
The 'element of life' also makes our atmosphere very dangerous and costly to operate in
Iron
How the abundant metal lron became the very stuff of modern industrial life
Cobalt
The metal in magnets and phone batteries - but is some of it being mined by children?
Boron
The mineral from the Wild West that toughens glass and stops bullets in their tracks.
Gallium and Indium
LED lighting and the other electronics revolutionised by the elements Gallium and Indium
Titanium
It's stronger than steel, but could this glamorous metal become as common as steel?
Magnesium and Beryllium
Two metals with sinister reputations - one for flammability, the other for lung disease
Copper
Why copper wires? And do solar power and batteries herald the death of the old AC grid?
