Periodic Table of WIS

I found this tiny magnet--samarium/cobalt alloy magnet, which can be levitated using a superconducting material. (This material is a mixture of yttrium oxide, copper II oxide and barium carbonate.)

Not sure I can do this in the lab because the mixture needs to be processed at 950 deg C for an hour--hotter than I can get--not to mention needing a stream of oxygen for three hours. I will just have to imagine the Meissner effect/levitation! BUT finding some samarium is really neat! As magnets, samarium alloys, are 10,000 x stronger than iron ones. Although with atomic number 62 samarium is a rare earth, it is the 40th most abundant element--used in headphones and electric guitar pick-ups as well as the radioactive isotope samarium-153 used in radiotherapy for lung, prostate and breast cancers.

WIS photographer