Blurs

Thousands of metres beneath the ocean surface lies an extraordinary world of ancient geological formations, unusual organisms and ecosystems that scientists are only beginning to understand.  Now, companies and governments are preparing to extract valuable minerals from the seabed. The potential rewards are enormous. So are the risks. Could humanity be about to destroy one of Earth's last great wildernesses in pursuit of the materials needed to power its technological future? An industrial revolution beneath the waves Imagine an industrial mining operation taking place more than four kilometres beneath the ocean surface. There is no sunlight. Temperatures are close to freezing. The pressure is hundreds of times greater than at sea level. Yet, scattered across the vast darkness of the seabed, lie millions of mineral-rich rocks containing metals increasingly important to modern civilisation. These are polymetallic nodules. They can contain manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt, among ...

A forgotten fountain pen sitting in a drawer might look like an ordinary piece of vintage stationery.  But hidden at the very tip of some historic nibs was a remarkable material: osmiridium, a naturally occurring alloy containing osmium and iridium. Osmium is one of the rarest naturally occurring elements on Earth — and one of the densest substances known. Today, refined osmium can command extraordinary prices in specialist markets. So could an old fountain pen actually contain osmium? Yes. But the reality is more complicated — and more interesting — than the headline suggests. Why did fountain pens need rare metals? Early fountain-pen nibs presented a fundamental engineering problem. Gold was ideal for the main body of a nib because it was corrosion-resistant and relatively easy to shape. But gold is also comparatively soft. A gold nib repeatedly dragged across paper would eventually wear away. The solution was to put a tiny, extremely hard piece of metal at the writing point. By ...