This survey reports on topics that were presented at the workshop on “Challenges with Rare Earth Elements. The Periodic Table at work for new Science & Technology” hold at the Academia dei Lincei in November 2019. The herein reported materials refer to presentations dealing with studies and applications of rare earth elements (REE) in several areas of Biology and Medicine. All together they show the tremendous impact REE have in relevant fields of living systems and highlight, on one hand, the still existing knowledge gap for an in-depth understanding of their function in natural systems as well as the very important role they already have in providing innovative scientific and technological solutions in a number of bio-medical areas and in fields related to the assessment of the origin of food and on their manufacturing processes. On the basis of the to-date achievements one expects that new initiatives will bring, in a not too far future, to a dramatic increase of our understanding of the REE involvement in living organisms as well as a ramp-up in the exploitation of the peculiar properties of REE for the design of novel applications in diagnostic procedures and in the set-up of powerful medical devices. This scenario calls the governmental authorities for new responsibilities to guarantee a continuous availability of REE to industry and research labs together with providing support to activities devoted to their recovery/recycling.

中文翻译：

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生物学和医学中的稀土元素（REE）

该调查报告了在“稀土元素的挑战”研讨会上提出的主题。周期表正在为新的科学技术工作”，于2019年11月在利塞伊学院举行。本文报道的材料是指涉及生物学和医学几个领域的稀土元素（REE）研究和应用的演讲。它们共同显示了REE在生命系统相关领域中的巨大影响，并且一方面强调了仍然存在的知识鸿沟，以便深入了解其在自然系统中的功能以及它们已经在自然系统中发挥的非常重要的作用。在许多生物医学领域以及与食品起源及其制造过程相关的评估领域中提供创新的科学和技术解决方案。根据最新的成就，人们期望在不久的将来，新的举措将使我们对稀土元素参与活体生物的理解以及对这种生物资源的开发的认识大大增加。 REE的特殊性能，可用于诊断程序和功能强大的医疗设备的新型应用设计。这种情况要求政府当局承担新的责任，以确保工业和研究实验室可以连续使用REE，并为致力于其回收/再循环的活动提供支持。极大地增加了我们对稀土元素在生物体中的参与的理解，以及为设计新颖的诊断程序和功能强大的医疗设备而开发的稀土元素特有的特性。这种情况要求政府当局承担新的责任，以确保工业和研究实验室可以连续使用REE，并为致力于其回收/再循环的活动提供支持。极大地增加了我们对稀土元素在生物体中的参与的理解，以及为设计新颖的诊断程序和强大的医疗设备应用而开发的稀土元素特有的特性。这种情况要求政府当局承担新的责任，以确保工业和研究实验室可以连续使用REE，并为致力于其回收/再循环的活动提供支持。