THE UNTOLD LINK BETWEEN NIELS BOHR AND RARE-EARTH RIDDLES

Rare earths are today steering talks on electric vehicles, wind turbines and next-gen 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 kept scientists scratching their heads for decades—until Niels Bohr intervened. A

You can’t scroll a tech blog without stumbling across a mention of rare earths—vital to EVs, renewables and defence hardware—yet almost nobody grasps their story. Seventeen little-known elements underwrite the tech that fuels modern life. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named Niels Bohr rewrot