Erbium is used right now in the internet’s optical fibre network, ... If you were to try reciting the periodic table, you might stumble before you got to the rare earth elements.

Physicists have filled in some longtime blank spaces on the periodic table, ... In 2007, O'Malley and Beck began a final push to complete the remaining lanthanides (promethium through erbium) ...

Four of those elements are named in tribute to the village (ytterbium, erbium, terbium, yttrium). ... 118 elements appear on the periodic table, and the seventh row is complete, ...