Have you ever imagined your smartphone or tablet without a touchscreen? This could soon be the case if we run out of indium, one of the rarest minerals on Earth. Indium is used in many high-tech devices such as touch screens, smartphones, solar panels, and smart windows, in the form of indium tin oxide. This compound is optically transparent and electrically conductive — the two crucial features required for touch screens to work. But there’s a problem: we have no guaranteed long-term supply of indium. It is naturally found only in tiny traces and is therefore impractical to mine directly.…
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