Discover the significance of rare-earth elements, their applications in technology, and the global race for their resources.

The overwhelming majority of the universe’s matter that we can see consists of hydrogen and helium. To create heavier elements, stars must do the heavy lifting of assembling their atomic nuclei.

In chemistry, we have He, Fe and Ca — but what about do, re and mi? Hauntingly beautiful melodies aren’t the first things that come to mind when looking at the periodic table of the elements. However, ...