You can’t scroll a tech blog without spotting 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 energises modern life. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named Niels Bohr rewrote

Rare earths are today steering conversations on electric vehicles, wind turbines and next-gen defence gear. Yet most readers still misunderstand what “rare earths” actually are. These 17 elements look ordinary, but they drive the technologies we carry daily. For decades they mocked chemists, remaining a riddle, until a quantum pioneer named N