Oh boy: US Energy Dept. teases 'major announcement'; Update: Not rain sticks; Critical Materials Hub announced

The suspense is killing us.

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Update:

Here are some of your guesses so far:

https://twitter.com/BenHowe/status/289053829029306368

@TwitchyTeam carbon tax?

— Chris (@SH60B) January 9, 2013

@TwitchyTeam They pulled those out of their collective A$$E$ & now will use some common sense in creating policies. #pipedream

— Paul (@pstanos) January 9, 2013

@BenHowe @twitchyteam are those rain sticks?? Lmao

— swamp saver (@JeffPSU90) January 9, 2013

https://twitter.com/JohnG405/status/289054452252557313

We’ll know soon enough. Meanwhile, a possible clue:

@ENERGY I think it's Extruded High Purity Europium(Eu) Metal. Do I win a prize?

— jerylbier (@JerylBier) January 9, 2013

More on that here. (via Jeryl Bier)

Update:

Ding ding ding! Jeryl is our winner!

Did you guess right? The image is of europium, which is used in #energy-efficient lights. Read about our research news: http://t.co/6CQWNw1A

— Energy Department (@ENERGY) January 9, 2013

We were really hoping for rain sticks.