A newly discovered protein could help detect, target, and collect from the environment the rare-earth metals used in smartphones. Two new studies by researchers at Penn State describe the protein, which is 100 million times better at binding to lanthanides—the rare-earth metals used in smartphones and other technologies—than to other metals like calcium. The first study, which appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes the protein, and the second paper, which appears online in the journal Biochemistry, describes its unique structure, which likely plays a role in its remarkable selectivity for lanthanides.