In the first issue of Materials World for 2012, the news section looks at the global recession's effects on the UK materials industry and China’s growing prominence in materials science.

Also investigated are new conductors for solid oxide fuel cells, a breakthrough development in artificial intelligence, electronics and neuroscience, and a new method for fabricating metal nanodot arrays.

Features focus on rare earth elements, looking at their dwindling supply, examining the surface layers of rare earth metals, and seeing how rare earth ions are affecting world-changing new technologies.

In minerals and mining we look at the resurgence of the mining industry in Liberia and, with the price of gold rising, ask whether now is the right time to invest in the precious metal.

Books reviewed this issue include How to Destroy the Universe and 34 Other Really Interesting Uses of Physics, while Material Matters ponders the recent CERN discovery of "faster-than-light" neutrinos.