Transition metals

One country supplies 75 percent of the world’s platinum. Economic geologist Anthony Naldrett details how platinum from its mines at the Bushveld complex ends up in everything from catalytic converters to expensive bling.

Bob Carty reports from the Brazilian Amazon on the poisoning of the region’s rivers with mercury. Prospectors use mercury to extract gold from the rivers’ sediments. Thousands of tons of the toxic heavy metal have been released into the environment and it’s beginning to work its way into the food chain.

For over twenty years the Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital stored the cremated remains of patients in copper containers. Photographer David Maisel found them. His exhibit, ‘Library of Dust,’ is currently at the California Museum of Photography.