NIELS BOHR’S HIDDEN ROLE IN DECODING RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS

Rare earths are today steering conversations on electric vehicles, wind turbines and cutting-edge defence gear. Yet the public frequently mix up what “rare earths” actually are. These 17 elements look ordinary, but they anchor the gadgets we hold daily. Their baffling chemistry left scientists scratching their heads for decades—until Niels B

You can’t scroll a tech blog without spotting a mention of rare earths—vital to EVs, renewables and defence hardware—yet almost nobody grasps their story. These 17 elements appear ordinary, but they power the technologies we use daily. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named Niels Bohr rewrote th