Very pure pieces of Lutetium, one of which has been remelted into the shape of a cube. | Image by Alchemist-hp
Lutetium, pronounced [Lu-tet-ee-um], is one of the transition metals and the 71st element in the periodic table. It is a ‘rare earth’ metal, which means it is not found in large deposits in the ground, and this makes it very expensive to mine.
Lutetium is used in oil refineries as a catalyst that helps separate the different parts of crude oil. It is also possible to find out the age of meteorites by measuring the amount radioactive lutetium they contain.
This is a general science zone, where we will meet five scientists from different areas of science.
There is a scientist who wants to help our immune system fight bacteria better, another who works at a theatre using large amounts of data to get people thinking about performing arts, and another who is trying to understand how groups of neurones in your brain communicate with each other. There is also a scientist who developing new hydrogen fuel cell technology and another who uses maths to look at the proteins in our body that are too small to see with a microscope.