Blurs

Lithium is one of the strangest metals on Earth. It is the lightest metal known, soft enough to be cut with a knife, and highly reactive.  On its own, it doesn't look particularly impressive. Yet this unassuming element has become one of the most important raw materials of the modern technological world. It is inside the batteries powering smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, power tools and increasingly, large-scale energy-storage systems. Lithium is also used in glass, ceramics, lubricating greases, aluminium alloys, pharmaceuticals and several industrial processes. But there is an obvious question hiding behind all those batteries: Where does all the lithium actually come from? And perhaps more importantly: What does it cost the planet to get it? What exactly is lithium? Lithium is chemical element number 3 on the periodic table. Its symbol is Li. It was first identified in 1817 by Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson, although commercially useful quantities would not be p...