Uses: X-ray and MRI imaging, the nuclear industry (particularly CANDU reactors), microwave applications (for communications and military use) and in magnetic refrigerators.

Gadolinium is the last of the light/medium rare earths and has very interesting properties making it useful in various different, unrelated products. It is paramagnetic (exhibits magnetic properties only in the presence of another magnetic field), and demonstrates a magnetocaloric effect (a reversible change in temperature that occurs in the presence of a magnetic field). Research is being done on creating a magnetocaloric fridge which would no longer require harmful CFC gases and require much less energy.