Gadolinium is a member of the so-called Rare Earth metals family of elements; a section of the periodic table comprising elements which are very similar chemically to one another. In nature, they're all found mixed together in a cocktail that is ungodly difficult to tease apart into their pure state which explains to some degree why metallurgists often don't bother messing with them. While remarkably unremarkable so far, gadolinium's prospects of breaking out into fame and fortune brightened considerably when it was discovered that the metal makes for an ideal ingredient in magnetic refrigerators. Yes, some day the old noisy compressor fridge in your kitchen might be replaced with one that runs on whisper-quiet, environmentally friendly gadolinium!

In the meantime why not become an early adopter of this presently obscure but soon to be famous metal? In the middle of this 5cm Lucite acrylic cube is suspended a very generous sized chunk of ultra pure (99.95%) gadolinium in a wonderfully textured rock-like shape.