Minerals in lab (IMAGE)
Caption
The Penn State lab turned to nature to find an alternative to the conventional solvent-based separation process for rare earths, because biology has already been harvesting and harnessing the power of rare earths for millennia, especially in a class of bacteria called “methylotrophs” that often are found on plant leaves and in soil and water and play an important role in how carbon moves through the environment.
Credit
Patrick Mansell/Penn State
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CC BY-NC-ND