41*

Element of the day (day 41)
#37) Rb-Rubidium -] metal  
Beneficial to  full  health,  or  thought to be for plants and 
 animals. 
DDiscovered in 1861 by Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff, Germany.
A fairly common metal, being 16th most abundant in the Earth's crust. Has very few commercial or industrial uses. Used in photocells, in special glass and as a radioactive tracer. Ha future potential for use in very thin batteries, vapor turbines and on ion engines that could power spacecraft ( like NASA's Deep Space probe).

Most of the world's rubidium is obtained from lithia mica lepidolite mainly from Canada. Found in trace amounts in pollucite, camallite, leucite and zinnwaldite.          D