#fotd773

[afactaday]

#aFactADay2023

#773: gadolinite is an ore named after Johan Gadolin from which no fewer than twelve elements have been discovered. it's also known as ytterbite because it was discovered in the town of Ytterby, Sweden. four of these twelve elements were named after the town (terbium, erbium, ytterbium and yttrium) making it by a long way the area with the most eponymous* elements per square mile. Gadolin was the lad to first isolated yttrium, as well as beryllium (but he didn't know about that one). as a result, he also had gadolinium named after him but this is barely present in ytterbite/gadolinite.

link: chemistry innit

*i'm misusing eponymous and i'm well aware but you know what i'm talking about lol. i can't (be bothered to) find the word for something which has something as its eponym (it's not quite a demonym? maybe a holonym?)