Main content

How rare are Greenland’s rare earth elements?

Rare earths. A term you’ll have heard a lot of in the news this week. What are they and why do we want them? And new research bringing together ME and long covid.

President Trump has his sights set on Greenland. If he succeeds, what mineral wealth will he find there? Adrian Finch, Professor of Geology at St Andrews University has been visiting Greenland for more than 3 decades and explains what so called ‘rare earth elements’ are found in Greenland and why.

Professor Danny Altmann talks to Tom Whipple about a new project to understand the genetic and metabolic similarities between two illnesses; Long Covid and ME.
And Lizzie Gibney, senior physics reporter at Nature brings her pick of the best new science this week.

To discover more fascinating science content, head to bbc.co.uk, search for Âé¶¹Éç Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University.

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producer: Clare Salisbury
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

Available now

27 minutes

Featured

  • .

Broadcasts

  • Thu 8 Jan 2026 16:30
  • Thu 8 Jan 2026 20:32
  • Thu 8 Jan 2026 21:32
  • Fri 9 Jan 2026 05:32
  • Fri 9 Jan 2026 09:32
  • Fri 9 Jan 2026 13:32
  • Mon 12 Jan 2026 00:32
  • Mon 12 Jan 2026 20:30

Explore further with The Open University

Discover more fascinating science content with The Open University

Podcast