Over time, countries have raced to get their hands on everything from coal to oil, gold to steel, natural gas to tin – but as we continue developing more and more advanced tech in our digital age, the race has become somewhat different in nature.

Nowadays, world-leaders are forming geopolitical alliances and even fighting proxy wars over natural mineral deposits including cobalt and uranium, lithium and rare earth elements.

Not only are these vital to the development of new technologies including those required for clean energy and electric vehicles, they are only going to continue to increase in value as our dependence on them increases alongside their scarcity.

It’s no wonder that often unscrupulous world leaders are keen to get their hands on them, whatever the cost.

But the race may, in a sense, be over, as researchers at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry in China have made an astounding discovery, as explained in their paper in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Many of the rare earth elements are present within a specific plant known as the Blechnum orientale.

This fern which is native to Asia and the Pacific actually accumulates the rare earth elements within the plan, storing them as nanocrystals within its leaves.

How do they get there? Well, the ferns are particularly fond of the ground where these mineral deposits are numerous; they absorb them from the soil that they grow in, and hold onto them, forming the crystals in a process known as phyto mineralization.

And this information could be crucial to our technological future.

Rare earth elements are notoriously difficult to extract, and doing so can be a truly dangerous process, not to mention destructive to the locations within which they are mined.

If the plants could help out by being farmed for such a process, the whole system could benefit.

Not to mention, it would be less intrusive to our planet, less polluting to the environment, and less harmful for miners.

And that can’t be anything but a good thing.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.