HOW NIELS BOHR CRACKED THE RARE-EARTH CODE

Rare earths are today dominating debates on EV batteries, wind turbines and cutting-edge defence gear. Yet many people often confuse what “rare earths” truly are. Seventeen little-known elements underwrite the tech that fuels modern life. Their baffling chemistry left scientists scratching their heads for decades—until Niels Bohr intervened

You can’t scroll a tech blog without stumbling across a mention of rare earths—vital to EVs, renewables and defence hardware—yet almost very few grasps their story. These 17 elements seem ordinary, but they anchor the gadgets we carry daily. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named Niels Bohr rewr