The Question:
This element is one of the Rare Earth Elements (REEs) so like most of the
rare earths, it forms trivalent ions with fluorescent properties and is
used as phosphors in various applications. Researchers at Iowa State
University/Ames Laboratory are using compounds containing this
element investigating its giant magnetocaloric effect for magnetic
refrigeration near room temperature, which could provide significant
efficiency and environmental advantages over conventional refrigeration
methods. This element is also used in nuclear marine propulsion systems as
a burnable poison. What element is being described?

The Answer:
The element is Gadolinium (Gd)! The isotope gadolinium-157 has the highest
thermal-neutron capture cross-section among any stable nuclide: about
259,000 barns.The main mining areas are in China, the USA, Brazil, Sri
Lanka, India, and Australia with reserves expected to exceed one million
tonnes. World production of pure gadolinium is about 400 tonnes per
year. Gadolinium can serve as an electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells.



The winner of the quiz is  Mordechai Kirshenbaum and  he will get the services
of Clumpy and Kloumpios for the week.


So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:

Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall
Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 51 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 52 Leland Woodall
Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 54 Leland Woodall
Week 55 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 56 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 57 Steve Herring, Pennatronics Corp
Week 58 Leland Woodall
Week 59 Drew Meyer, Benchmark
Week 60 Leland Woodall
Week 61 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 62 Leland Woodall!
Week 63 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 63 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 63 Tom Granat
Week 64 George Wenger

Week 65  Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
-  Since the boys are probably tired from all the work George made them do,
they can join me for the week at Sunset Beach on the Monterrey Bay. Pure
relaxation on vacation. Maybe they can convince the local raccoons to stay
out of my camp. We’ll have some great games of Cards Against Humanity with
them.

Week 66  Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
- Good timing.  We just purchased another oven and I can use the help
getting ready to take delivery

Week 66 Leland Woodall
- assisted with ????

Week 67  Eray Canli,  ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
- While I am on leave, guys can spend whole week trying to tidy my
desktop...hope they can finish before I'm back!

Week 68  James Head
- It appears that Clumpy and Kloumpios brought the rain with them after
we've had several weeks of dry and hot weather. I've been keeping them busy
all week with some Orcad layout work with a brief excursion to take my two
year old daughter to Mini Professors to learn about friction whilst
constructing a hover craft out of an old CD, balloon and the top of a
washing up liquid bottle. I caught them trying to violate the second law of
thermodynamics but managed to stop them in time before they could give
Louise bad ideas.

Week 69  Mordechai Kirshenbaum
- but I don't want the brothers to travel so far away (they already had
been in Israel several months ago)...so they get the week off!



I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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