A team of researchers from China, the U.S. and Australia has found that adding the rare-earth element samarium to piezoelectric crystals can dramatically improve their performance. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their work and how well the altered crystals performed when tested. Jiří Hlinka with Fyzikální ústav Akademie Věd České Republiky has published a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue.