This is the Island of Uto in Sweden. To many, this island may seem just like any other island. Its filled with a lot of normal plant life, a few docks for people to visit, and even a few tourists pop up here or there. There should be nothing special about this island. But as it turns out, this island may be responsible for a lot of our modern world, and the future global superpowers in the coming decades…

You see, Our technology, our economy, and even our culture, may have originated on this exact island in the year 1800.
And What happened on this island over 220 years ago, might dictate the next great technological superpowers, our future economy, and what happens to humanity as a whole in the coming decades.


Jose Bonifacia de Andrada was a Geology Professor at the university of Coimbra in the year 1800. But in his spare time, he traveled around europe studying rocks (they’re minerals, Marie).
One day on his travels, he stumbled upon an island with a small iron mine that was operating nearby.
So, he ventured into the mine, and found a very strange mineral.
It was somewhat clear with a yellow and whitish tint. It was also fairly brittle and didn’t seem like it would hold any special properties.
So, that rock, which he called petalite, got put away in a swedish labratory, where it was not touched for another 17 years.

That was until swedish Chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius and his student Johan August Arfwedson, decided to analyze the mineral.
And what they found was an element that the world had never seen before. It was an element that behaved very similar to potassium and sodium, however, this element was much less soluble in water and seemed to be more solid than them as well.
And so, they named this new element Lithium, which is derived from the greek word ‘Lithos’, meaning, Stone.


Now, when there is a new discovery in a field like chemistry or physics, it usually takes many years before we find a practical application for it.

And if you have studied history at all. You probably know that there is one thing that drives technological innovation more than any other factor.

The thing that drives science and technology forward faster than any other thing, is not education, its not freedom, its not the economy, its not a government policy, its not even a scientific research fund.

The one thing that creates innovation the fastest throughout the history of humankind. Is war.

If you want to innovate faster than at anytime in human history. Then go to war.

You see, up until the 1940s, lithium didn’t really have a purpose. There were a few lithium mines that were active in the world. And lithium was only used for basic materials like ceramic bowls, and for the treatment of mania in a few small areas in europe

But when WW2 came along, it started being mass produced because it was a vital part of greasing the engines of fighters and bombers.

But it wasn’t until after WW2 ended, and a new colder war began, that lithium would begin to become a massive part of humankinds history.

That’s because this little element would play a vital role in developing humanities most infamous invention.

As it turns out, when you apply quite a lot of heat and bombard lithium with subatomic particles called neutrons, you get this…

A thermonuclear weapon. The most destructive thing that humanity has ever created, was created, because of that little rock that was discovered in Uto, Sweden, just 150 years beforehand.

And what soon followed was a nuclear arms race between the soviet union and the united states.
Over the course of the next 3 decades, the demand for thermonuclear bombs skyrocketed, and so did the demand for lithium.
The soviet union and the united states would go on to create 70,000 nuclear weapons during the cold war, and detonate 1,747 of them to see their effects on our planet earth.

And because of this nuclear armament, Lithium began being mined all around the world. The united states became the largest producer of lithium up until the 1990s when the united states began to disarm its nuclear arsenal.

And so, the 2000s came along. And the demand for lithium completely dried up. The industry was dead. but then this happened (maybe show clip of steve jobs iphone speech)




In 2007, the iphone was released. You see, as it turns Lithium was a very special element because it was extremely good at one thing.



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