New Delhi:
While smartphones are a part of our everyday lives, do we, while texting, calling try to fathom what is inside the complex machinery? To find out the content inside the smartphone, Scientists at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom came out with an interesting experiment- putting the phone in a blender. The Scientists blended the smartphone to dust to conduct a chemical analysis of what it contains - and raise awareness of harmful resourcing.
The brainchild of two geologists at the university, the project sought “to demonstrate why we should all take a keener interest in what is contained within everyday electrical items,†a university representative wrote in a press release. One goal of the experiment was to “encourage greater recycling rates once the devices reach the end of their useful lives,†the statement added.
Watch the video here:
“We rely increasingly on our mobile phones but how many of us actually think what is behind the screen?" @PlymUniNews @GeoArjan @SciEngPlymUni @PlymEarth pic.twitter.com/ueMUdWfoER
— University of Plymouth (@PlymUni) March 14, 2019
So, what exactly did the scientists find? With a chemical analysis, the scientists found that the iPhone was made of 33 grams of iron, 7 grams of chromium and 13 grams of silicon. But, beyond that, the most fascinating discovery is the amount of gold and silver found in the phones. That’s 100 times more gold than what geologists refer to as “high-grade,†the release says.
They added that hence, to create one phone, workers would need to mine 10-15kg of ore, including 7kg of high-grade gold ore, 1kg of typical copper ore, 750g of typical tungsten ore and 200g of typical nickel ore and every year, 1.4 billion mobile phones are produced around the world.
Colin Wilkins, one of the two scientists behind the experiment, said that the phone industry needs to do their part in helping the environment by recycling more of these materials.
