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The article discusses nuclear waste storage research on the role that ruthenium plays in preventing naturally-occurring hazardous nuclear material in Earth's crust, including radioactive caesium-13, from escaping into the atmosphere, referencing an article coauthored by scientist Evan Groopman in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The article reports that the growing demand for cellular phones and flat-screen televisions is depleting globals supplies of metals such as bismuth, ruthenium, and indium, and raising supply prices exponentially. Comments from Rüdiger Kühr of the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan regarding a global e-waste initiative are presented.

The article presents a study on electrons, conducted by Alexander Föhlsich and colleagues at the University of Hamburg, Germany. The study was published in the vol. 436 of the journal "Nature." The study reports that electrons can hop between atoms in a mere 320 quintillionths of a second. The researchers used a core-hole clock to time electrons as they zipped from a sulphur atom to an adjacent ruthenium metal surface. The researchers fired X-rays at the sulphur, causing an electron near the atom's centre to become excited and jump, leaving behind an empty "core-hole" in its place. They found it in a nearby ruthenium atom, meaning that it had gone across in a bit less time than it took to fill the core-hole.