RARE EARTH NATION'S EDGE

Country looks inward for high-tech materials

China is sitting atop the biggest trove of strategic rare earth elements on the planet - 40 million metric tons, more than a third of the estimated global total.

Remember that periodic table from chemistry class? It's the tabular grid showing the 118 known elements, the building blocks of all matter. The cryptic one-and two-character codes stand for things that touch people's lives every day. Who can forget the combination of hydrogen and oxygen for water, or H2O?