From New Scientist magazine (March 10 2007) comes an interesting little article which bears more thought. It points out that demand for flat screen TVs and cellphones is creating shortages in metals you’re never heard of.

Bismuth and indium may sound like potentially disgusting medical conditions (“I’m sorry son, that’s the worst case of bismuth I’ve ever seen…”), but they’re both rare and uncommon metals.

So uncommon that some people are saying that they might run out in 3-5 years. According to the analyst quoted in the article, it’s going to start a while new industry : mining electronic waste to try and recover trace metals.

Very Kim Stanley Robinson….