Certain bacteria can also use the radioactive elements americium and curium instead of lanthanides for their metabolic processes. Scientists at Radboud University, among others, report these findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Lanthanides, or rare earth metals, are essential not only for all kinds of electronics, but also for certain bacteria. These bacteria use lanthanides to carry out their metabolic processes, such as breaking down methanol, and are ubiquitous in the environment. Now it turns out that these earth metals are not as irreplaceable for bacteria as we thought.