You can’t scroll a tech blog without bumping into a mention of rare earths—vital to EVs, renewables and defence hardware—yet almost very few grasps their story. Seventeen little-known elements underwrite the tech that runs modern life. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named Niels Bohr rewrote t

Rare earths are today steering talks on EV batteries, wind turbines and advanced defence gear. Yet the public still misunderstand what “rare earths” actually are. Seventeen little-known elements underwrite the tech that runs modern life. Their baffling chemistry had scientists scratching their heads for decades—until Niels Bohr entered the