Blas Cabrera Felipe and “rare-earths” elements, protagonists in the birth of Quantum Physics

Abstract

This article presents a summary of the life and contributions of the eminent Spanish scientist Blas Cabrera Felipe, born in Canary Islands. From his humble beginnings in Lanzarote and La Laguna, Tenerife, to his consolidation in Madrid, to becoming a distinguished internationally recognized physicist. The narration focuses on key moments in his career and personal life. From his meeting with Albert Einstein in Zurich and his subsequent historic visit to Madrid in 1923 to his contribution to science with the study of the magnetism of the “rare-earths” chemical elements at the Solvay Conferences in the 1930s and 1933, along with his role in the creation of the National Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Madrid in 1932, the purge under Franco, and his exile and death in Mexico in 1945. It also highlights the recovery of his memory and his unpublished manuscript legacy, including the repatriation of his remains to La Laguna in Tenerife in 2022 and the recent renaming of the “Blas Cabrera Physical Chemistry Institute” (IQF) in his honor by the CSIC in Spain in 2023. Blas Cabrera, a pioneer and “father of Spanish physics,” can undoubtedly be also considered as one of the fathers of Quantum Physics in the field of magnetism, beside with his colleagues Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and other great scientists with whom he formed part of the European scientific elite in the first half of the 20th century.

Keywords
Blas Cabrera; Rare-earths elements; Quantum Physics; Solvay conferences; Magnetism