Your phone has probably been to more countries than you have. That’s because it also contains more pieces of the periodic table than you do: a study found that the average smartphone contains about 62 distinct elements out of the 83 stable, non-radioactive elements in the periodic table as opposed to the paltry eleven non-trace elements identifiable in the human body. You don’t get all 62 of those elements from the same place, and some of them are only available in a few places on Earth, meaning that without a global supply, chain not even China, with its disproportionate share of resource production (over 90%… Read more