Synopses & Reviews
The fascinating story of the most powerful source of energy the earth can yield
Uranium is a common element in the earthas crust and the only naturally occurring mineral with the power to end all life on the planet. After World War II, it reshaped the global orderawhoever could master uranium could master the world.
Marie Curie gave us hope that uranium would be a miracle panacea, but the Manhattan Project gave us reason to believe that civilization would end with apocalypse. Slave labor camps in Africa and Eastern Europe were built around mine shafts and America would knowingly send more than six hundred uranium miners to their graves in the name of national security.
Fortunes have been made from this yellow dirt; massive energy grids have been run from it. Fear of it panicked the American people into supporting a questionable war with Iraq and its specter threatens to create another conflict in Iran. Now, some are hoping it can help avoid a global warming catastrophe.
In Uranium, Tom Zoellner takes readers around the globe in this intriguing look at the mineral that can sustain life or destroy it.
Synopsis
The fascinating story of the substance that can sustain life--or destroy it--"Uranium" illustrates how the use of this mineral has shaped the modern world order.
Synopsis
The astonishing biography of a mineral that can sustain our world- or destroy it Uranium occurs naturally in the earth's crust-yet holds the power to end all life on the planet. This is its fundamental paradox, and its story is a fascinating window into the valor, greed, genius, and folly of humanity. A problem for miners in the Middle Ages, an inspiration to novelists and a boon to medicine, a devastating weapon at the end of World War II, and eventually a polluter, killer, excuse for war with Iraq, potential deliverer of Armageddon and a possible last defense against global warming-Uranium is the riveting story of the most powerful element on earth, and one which will shape our future, for better or worse.
About the Author
Tom Zoellner has been a contributing editor at Men's Health magazine, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, and is the co-author with Paul Rusesabagina of An Ordinary Man. His book The Heartless Stone was named a 2006 Notable Book by the American Library Association.