Ytterbium, ih TUR bee uhm, is a soft silvery metal. Small amounts of ytterbium are used in metallurgical and chemical experiments. In 1878, the Swiss chemist Jean de Marignac gave the name ytterbium to a substance that he found in a mineral called yttria. In 1907, the French chemist Georges Urbain separated de Marignac's substance into two chemical elements, lutetium and ytterbium. Several minerals, such as monazite, gadolinite, and xenotime, contain ytterbium.