Lanthanum is a chemical element with the symbol La and atomic number 57. Lanthanum is a silvery white metallic element that belongs to group 3 of the periodic table and is the first element of the lanthanide series. It is found in some rare-earth minerals, usually in combination with cerium and other rare earth elements. Lanthanum is a malleable, ductile, and soft metal that oxidizes rapidly when exposed to air. It is produced from the minerals monazite and bastnasite using a complex multistage extraction process. Lanthanum compounds have numerous applications as catalysts, additives in glass, carbon lighting for studio lighting and projection, ignition elements in lighters and torches, electron cathodes, scintillators, and others. Lanthanum carbonate (La2(CO3)3) was approved as a medication against renal failure. Lanthanum is a soft, malleable, silvery white metal which has hexagonal crystal structure at room temperature. At 310 °C, lanthanum changes to a face-centered cubic structure, and at 865 °C into a body-centered cubic structure. Lanthanum easily is oxidized (a centimeter-sized sample will completely oxidize within a year) and is therefore used as in elemental form only for research purposes. For example, single La atoms have been isolated by implanting them into fullerene molecules. If carbon nanotubes are filled with those lanthanum-encapsulated fullerenes and annealed, metallic nanochains of lanthanum are produced inside carbon nanotubes. Lanthanum is most commonly obtained from monazite and bastnasite. The mineral mixtures are crushed and ground. Monazite, because of its magnetic properties, can be separated by repeated electromagnetic separation. After separation, it is treated with hot concentrated sulfuric acid to produce water-soluble sulfates of rare earths. The acidic filtrates are partially neutralized with sodium hydroxide to pH 3-4. Thorium precipitates out of solution as hydroxide and is removed. After that, the solution is treated with ammonium oxalate to convert rare earths to their insoluble oxalates. The oxalates are converted to oxides by annealing. The oxides are dissolved in nitric acid that excludes one of the main components, cerium, whose oxide is insoluble in HNO3. Lanthanum is separated as a double salt with ammonium nitrate by crystallization. This salt is relatively less soluble than other rare earth double salts and therefore stays in the residue. While lanthanum has pharmacological effects on several receptors and ion channels, its specificity for the GABA receptor is unique among divalent cations. Lanthanum acts at the same modulatory site on the GABA receptor as zinc- a known negative allosteric modulator. The Lanthanum cation La3+ is a positive allosteric modulator at native and recombinant GABA receptors, increasing open channel time and decreasing desensitization in a subunit configuration dependent manner.