2019-09-02 Bloomberg Businessweek

46

YTTERBY: COURTESY TEKNISKA MUSEET. HUSSEIN: COURTESY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. BOMB: COURTESY NARA

37

Rb

Rubidium

SPACE

COMMODITY

Late last year a team at the

U.S. National Institute for

Standards and Technology

in Boulder, Colo., recorded

a clip of Queen and David

Bowie’s Under Pressure using

excited rubidium and cesium

atoms. NIST’s Christopher

Holloway says the project

grew out of work on atomic

sensors, whose potential

applications include deep-

space communications. In

a paper, his team wrote of

a desire to inspire others

and “help create the future

quantum-based workforce.”

How,wewondered,mightthat

playout...

2020 Atomic-musicstansflood

Boulder,akaQuantumValley

2030 QVbuildsvastcatalogof

“rubstep”songsforaliens

2031 Undauntedbylackof

market,VCsinvestbillions

2047 Aliencontact:Rubstep

broadcastsbegin

2069 CallistockheldonJupiter’s

8thmoon;profitssoar

2099 Teeninventssoftwareto

distributerubstepforfree

2120 Distressed-asset specialists

feast on QV’s bones

38

Sr

Strontium

Fiveyearsago,MicrosoftCorp.foundedthe

MicrosoftThreatIntelligenceCenter(MSTIC,pro-

nounced“mystic”)totrackso-calledadvanced

persistentthreatgroups—sophisticatedbands

ofhackers,oftenlinkedtonation-states,that

aimtostealsecretsandmoneyandtodisrupt

businesses and elections.MSTIChaschristened

more than 70 of thegroupsit trackswiththe

name of an element.Forexample,theRussian

group responsibleforthe 2016 hackofthe

Democratic NationalCommittee,elsewhere

calledFancyBearorAPT28,is referredtoby

MSTICasStrontium.Whyelements?“I didn’t

wantanythingparticularlycutesylike‘kitten,’”

says John Lambert, who founded the team.

And though strontium, an alkali metal, is widely

used to make fireworks, the names are chosen

randomly. It’s not “like all the noble gases map

to Iran or anything,” Lambert says. In 2016,

Microsoft sued Strontium in a U.S. court, help-

ing it seize more than 100 website domains

linked to the group.

NAME AND SHAME By Dina Bass

NAME

LINKED TO

KNOWN

ATTACKS

ON

RECENT

EXPLOIT

ELEMENTAL

SIMILARITIES

Strontium

(aka Fancy Bear, APT28)

Russia

Governments, media,

and NGOs in Germany,

South Africa, the U.K.,

and the U.S.

Released doping-related

International Olympic

Committee emails prior to

the 2018 Winter Olympics

Tarnishes in the open

Phosphorus

(aka APT35, Charming

Kitten, Ajax Security Team)

Iran

Political dissidents, media

members, NGOs, and

governments in Iran, the

U.K., and the U.S.

Targeted businesses and

government agencies

with websites resembling

Microsoft and Yahoo ones

Can cause severe burns

Barium

(akaWinnti,Shadow-

Hammer, Wicked Panda)

China

Gaming companies,

airlines, and hotels

in India, Ukraine, and

the U.S.

Penetrated a server and

inserted a backdoor into

an Asus software-update

program

Produces clear view

of innards

Thallium

(aka Kimsuky, Hydra,

BabyShark)

North Korea

Governments, NGOs, and

media in Japan, the U.K.,

and the U.S.

Sent emails tricking

users into downloading

software that could

record login credentials

Toxic and hard to detect

39

Y

Yttrium

◼ Rubidium $84,400 / kg 99.75%-gradeampoules

◼ Strontium $6.50 / kg 99% strontiummetal f.o.b., China market

◼ Yttrium $32 / kg Metal, Shanghai market

At least eight elements, all rare earths, can trace their discovery to this mine in

Ytterby, Sweden, photographed in 1910. Four are named for the site: yttrium, terbium,

erbium, and ytterbium. The others are gadolinium, holmium, scandium, and thulium.

ORE SPOT