I stated as a fact that rare earths had an application in glass technology.
You're the one that seemed to think the only type of glass was borosilicate, in addition to utterly blanking on the importance of trace elements and doping in glass properties.
As mentioned, you might benefit from a better reading in materials science.
For example, not just microscopes, there's also: https://www.fiberoptics4sale.com/blogs/archive-posts/9504429...
I heard a rumour that these "optical fibres" get used a lot, but hey, you're the expert.
And the snark doesn't add to the discussion.
Soda–lime glass accounts for about 90% of manufactured glass.
The implication being that borosilicate glass accounts for at most 10% of global production.
It's the dominant type for thermal | bakeware where expansion factors matter, but overall not the most common glass type in production.
> And the snark doesn't add to the discussion.
Please advise the user that stated "Pretty sure your source is shit given .. {false statement}"
Re: snark - the point of HN is that we are better than that. If someone is snarky, then we shouldn't respond in kind. But I get it. It's easier to say than to do.
At no point did I claim that rare earth in glass was a bottleneck to solar panel manufacture, glass only arose as doping glass for specific properties is one of the many reasons why we process rare earth materials at all.
There's more to glass than borosilicates and bulk ingredients are the least interesting source of unique properties.
FWiW Soda-Lime glass is more common than borosilicate glass and bases in at ~ 70 percent silica (silicon dioxide), 15 percent soda (sodium oxide), and 9 percent lime (calcium oxide). No Boron (in general).
That dull fact alone suggests your knowledge of glass could use a significant leg up.
If you're looking to better educate yourself there's the Corning School of Glass for the Art Glass applications and various industrial glass journals about optical glass, strengthened glass, et al.
As for rare earths in glass you can either take the material science journal search approach (multiple hits) or refer to the uses page of the largest global supplier of rare earths:
~ https://lynasrareearths.com/about-us/what-are-rare-earths/See the part "non-replaceable in many .. optical .. applications" ?