Your future iPhone's parts could come from the ocean floor
I'm always blown away when I remember that every single one of the raw materials that goes into making an iPhone or iPad has existed on this planet for hundreds of millennia.
Just think about that for a second. When Neanderthals roamed the earth, and when the Roman emperors ruled -- all the raw materials needed for an iPhone or iPad were already available. However, just because you have the raw materials available, doesn't mean you have the knowledge or technology to build such wondrous devices -- that's what time and progress are for (and Steve Jobs).
But once you have the knowledge and materials, look what you can create: solar panels, iPads, MRI machines. Oh, the wonders! Of course the problem with raw materials is consumption. As our technology advances and we consume more raw materials, there's less of them left on the earth to keep making cool devices like the iPhone. This is especially true for a group of raw materials -- mainly certain types of metal -- known as rare earths.
Rare earths are used in any number of electronic devices from iPhones to batteries to lasers. And they're called "rare" for a reason -- they aren't abundant and we are running out of them. China currently controls 97% of rare earth production, but the US, Russia, and Australia also produce rare earths. Despite who controls the production, the simple fact is that we are running our of rare earth metals and once gone, say goodbye to future electronic devices. It's great if Apple comes up with a way to make the iPad 6 have a tactile 3D holographic display, but if there's no more rare earths left to build the parts it needs everyone is gonna be stuck using the iPad 5 -- forever.
Even though we are running out of rare earths on land, Nature Geoscience is reporting that rare earth materials are abundant in the mud of the Pacific ocean floor. Best of all, mining and extracting the rare earth metals from the sea floor mud is apparently actually easier than extracting the metals from terrestrial sources. That's great news for everyone who likes technology. So in a few years when you pick up your new iPhone, stop to think for a moment and wonder at the fact that parts of that iPhone were once buried in mud on the bottom of the sea floor.
[via Ars Technica]
Share
Categories
I'm always blown away when I remember that every single one of the raw materials that goes into making an iPhone or iPad has existed...
Add a Comment
All so amazing, Apple has done some amazing stuff and continues to do so,
I wish they could just make a phone that would not drop calls, Now THAT would be
truly amazing
Our oceans are already severely polluted. Years of chemicals, millions of gallons of oil, nuclear reactor waste pumped into our oceans, miles upon miles of polluted plastics littering our oceans and WE now want to mine from the ocean floor the same rare earth materials you can find inland! No marine life can life forever in this constant upheaval in our ecosystem. When will all of the destruction of our oceans and waterways stop; when there is no marine life left? I no longer eat any type of seafood due to all of the chemicals, including metals found in so much marine life. We've destroyed one of our last sacred areas!
July 08 2011 at 11:47 AM Report abuse Permalink +3 rate up rate down ReplyGo home hippie!
July 08 2011 at 6:02 PM Report abuse Permalink -2 rate up rate down ReplyIt's just the perfect scenario to get SeaQuest back on air...
July 08 2011 at 11:43 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replydoes anyone actually have any stats on the rate in which rare earths are being used, and the rate at which they are created? they are rare, but they also have to come from somewhere. like oil, it may take millions of years, but it is still produced by this earth. i love articles like this that offer no real facts and get all the greenies pissing their pants. what a bunch of stupid ********. read a ******* book.
July 08 2011 at 11:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyRare earths are elements - they were created by the sun. Therefore we have all of them that we will ever get, no more will ever be created (unless we set up a new sun here on earth, which could be messy!).
There are finite resources on this earth, and our population and resource consumption is increasing exponentially. Do the maths: it is inevitable - and blindingly obvious - that we will run out of various resources unless we recycle intensively. (Research helium if you're interested - we're really screwing up there as it disappears off into space every time we use it!).
Ignorance doesn't mean it won't happen. You say "read a book", and yet you obviously couldn't even be bothered to click on the wikipedia link to rare earth elements in the article!!!
Rare earth elements were definitely not created by the sun. They were created during two supernovae around 7 billion years ago which left behind the material our sun eventually formed from.
July 09 2011 at 8:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate downGood point: In order to create new rare earth resources we need to something considerably more complicated than just recreate a Sun here on earth - we'll need to create a supernova!
July 11 2011 at 4:34 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate downwhat a fantastic article. I love it.
July 08 2011 at 10:05 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down ReplyThe first sentence made me throw up a little in my mouth.
July 08 2011 at 9:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyshut up, and stop being so boring.
July 08 2011 at 10:05 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Replybut you're not always blown away when you remember that every single one of the raw materials that goes into making yourself or your family has existed on this planet for >4 billion years?
July 08 2011 at 7:52 AM Report abuse Permalink +2 rate up rate down ReplyNope. It's only cool to think about those things with regards to Apple products. The author must be a lonely, lonely person who lives in a tiny basement apartment surrounded by the warm glow of his beloved Apple products while devoid of any truly human connection (unless you count blog posts).
July 08 2011 at 12:50 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down ReplyNo one here who ever worked in offshore oil extraction, eh?
Yes, it could be done. So could retrieval of nickel nodules lying around on the ocean floor in some locations. It ain't easy enough to be profitable enough to make it worthwhile.
So, we'll return to the usual crap politics of having political hacks stand up and whine on the floor of Congress, make threats and try to manage the market by bluster. The NY TIMES wil editorialize, the Kool Aid Party will burn a Chinese flag...the market will proceed regardless.
kool aid party? i think you are referring to the right, seeing as the left loves china and tries to pass laws based on their system daily. if you are in fact talking about the right- then you can go **** yourself. mainly for being a stupid piece of ****. but also because i said so. **** you commie.
July 08 2011 at 11:28 AM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down ReplyAfter seeing the new Transformers movie we could just get the materials from the dark side of the Moon. j/K...
Asteroid mining could be a viable alternative in "the future" if we didn't just kill off our space program! Well at least NASA is sending up some iPhones today. (which I'm wondering if AT&T or Verizon has cell towers in space).
-Chris
http://friendsofmac.net
yea thats cost effective.
July 08 2011 at 11:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIs the concept of recycling completely alien to the author of this post? If we reused even half the components in our electronic devices then we could save a significant amount of mining for rare earth elements. This post seems a little short-sighted and ignorant of environmental issues.
July 08 2011 at 6:19 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down ReplyDeals of the Day
more deals- Acoustic Research Digital Photo Frame with iPod Dock for $50 + free shipping
- Targus Truss Case for iPad and iPad 2 for $15 + free shipping
- Apple iPhone 4 8GB for Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint for $50 + pickup at Best Buy
- Unlocked iPhone 4S 16GB for GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile) for $619 + free shipping
- Apple iMac Core i7 Quad 3.4GHz 27" w/ 24GB RAM, 2TB HDD for $2,677 + $29 s&h
- Used Apple Magic Mouse for $36 + $4 s&h
Software Updates
more updatesFeatured Stories
more stories
Popular Stories
TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
21 Comments