Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth

Rare is an entertaining read that carries you around the globe and beyond while searching and learning about Rare Earth Elements (REEs). These elements have been used and are being used to power everyday gadgets and electronics that we take for granted everyday. These metals are very important for the modern way of life and influence fiscal markets and the geopolitical climate.While people ensconced in the electronics development industry will probably desire more depth, everyone else should benefit from the breadth of material that is covered. A nice overview which doubles as a page-turner.

I have the hardback with 230 pages not including footnotes and index. The author has a PhD in chemistry and it shows in the book. He also displays a broad intellectual scope. I wouldn’t have thought that I would be reading about the assisination of Alexander Litvenenko, a review os some aspects of Sino-Japanese Wars, and the ownership of two pieces of Russian equipment on the moon by Richard Garriott, in a book about rare metals, but I did and you will too.The book contains a great deal of interesting information and the author has a sense of humor as he writes. I found the book to be an easy and informative read.What do you get? The book looks at teh atomic makeup of various metals and the effect that extral electrons and protons can have. But don’t be put off by this, the explanations are very accessible. He looks at China’s “long-game” which is a requirement for any review of rare metals.. Cobalt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the wars that have occurred there are examined.The scientific histories of the discoveries of rare metals are reviewed as well. I found these histories and the scientists who performed the research quite interesting.He also looks at some of the qualities of the rare metals, their usages in the equipment that we use and rely on, and possible future uses. Most will be aware of their use in smartphones, but golf clubs, too, benefit from these materials.What happens when we begin to run out of these rare, but necessary, metals? Maybe we seek to secure these from radioactive sources and the book examines these opportunities. Maybe we mine the seabed or maybe outer space and the book looks at both of those possibilities.What won’t you get? You won’t get an organized review of each of the rare metals with their uses. Tantalum gets a relatively long look, others, not so much.I read the book as part of a personal effort to learn about rare metals. I’ve read three others, The Rare Metals War, Groundbreaking, and The Elements of Power. The Rare Metals War looked at the geopolitical aspects of rare metals (China v. US), Groundbreaking looked at the US policy approach to rare metals over the last 50 or so years and The Elements of Power took a broader look at the economics, trade practices and other aspects of rare metals. Rare provides a complementary look at the subject and I recommend it if the subject interests you. It’s an easy and, at times, fun read.

I bought the book because of a rather positive review it received in Nature journal (volume 517, page 142 (2015)). The book is anything but good. I was hoping to find a coherent story about one or two rare-earth metals, never mind a dozen of them, yet all I discovered were scattered, unrelated pieces of information with very little scientific underpinning/interest.I am not even certain a history student would benefit from reading excerpts about unrest in Congo, or the history of Sino-Japanese relations. For example, it would have been enough to know that Japan vehemently defends its Senkaku islands because of large metal deposits therein -- reading about Chinese and Japanese relations for the past thousand years had little to do with metals! Worse still, little scientific information that there was in the book, was at times appallingly inexact, if not outright wrong -- calling xenon a ''molecule'' (page 219) is a dubious endeavor, likely to make anyone with basic high school science background laugh, or shake their heads. There are also other statements that were made without proper consideration. For example, a sentence found on page 227, "It is also possible we may find a currently unknown metal in one of these asteroids, the product of vastly different geological movements and climates foreign to Planet Earth." It is hard to imagine under what circumstances this statement could be right. Periodic table is pretty "full", and no new elements could be squeezed in between the existing ones. The as-of-yet undiscovered ones (I believe the heaviest one has an atomic number around 118) will only be synthesized in the laboratory, and will have lifetimes on the order of minutes -- surely not long enough to have survived billions of years on an asteroid, in order for us to "discover new metals", as author puts it. (Unless the writer is referring to the so-called island of stability; even so, these radioactive elements will have lifetimes on the order of days, not billions of years.) Interestingly enough, the author apparently contradicts himself on page 229, "...it becomes apparent there are no undiscovered "super metals" lying in wait for curious physicists and chemists to stumble upon...".A very disappointing read.

Keith is one of my favorite writers online. I have enjoyed his io9 stuff for years and enjoyed his last book Plugged In!.With the preface that I am an engineer, not a scientist, I will say that this book was great on my level while at the same time providing that palpable content that didn't make it too general of a read.The most important thing I gained from this read was the incredible political instability and how the rare metals that power our phones and small electronics (you ever wonder how you hold a <1lb device that can access every piece of information that has ever been known to man?) are so important to that political machine.

This book was interesting and covered a long, winding, and rather random explanation of Rare earth metals. Some additional information on how to find and process these rare metals would have been beneficial, or at least a listing of people with such expertise.

I was hoping that this book would have a chapter on each of the rare earths...detailing the history, the chemistry, unique properties etc. this was covered loosely but bounced around a lot. A bit of a disappointment.

The issue of Rare Metals for us to secure the transition to more sustainable technologies. This is an excellent non-technical introduction. well written and easy to read. Only issue is that it meanders and occasionally really digresses into side issues. Nonetheless you will come away informed and entertained on this important topic.

At first I worried there was not a great deal in this book. But I enjoyed it because the facts were up-to-date and well researched.I would recommend this book.

The book is too superficial to be a joy to read. People with more chemistry than me stopped after three chapters. I am disappointed after page 19. And already the author has claimed that silver is only five times more common than platinum, if you read what he has written with half a page's distance. I will probably browse a bit more, bit I only expect to be disappointed.

More of a focus on resource economics than a scientific perspective than I was expecting but generally well-written, good use of analogies etc.Probably a bit short, particularly on emerging rare earth mining industries (e.g. deep-sea mining)

Didn't really learn much more than I already knew. No great insights, not much content. Kept me busy for an afternoon but its not gone on my shelf of books to keep. A disappointment.