New book on uranium goes down a bomb

THE Greek philosopher Empedocles, who lived in Sicily, is said to have committed suicide by jumping into the volcano so no trace of his mortal remains would be found and people would think he was a god.

The idea that the world is composed of four ingredients, earth, air fire and water, is Empedocles’s great legacy. It has been one of the most persistent notions in western thought, although there are 92 naturally occurring elements and not just four.

The heaviest element, uranium, drives the turbines of power stations without emitting greenhouse gases. It’s a Jeckyll and Hyde substance, however. Appalling weapons of mass destruction can be fashioned from it and the waste products produced during its peaceful applications remain lethal for tens of thousands of years. This element could save or destroy mankind. A recently published book, Uranium Wars: the Scientific Rivalry That Created The Nuclear Age, gives a fascinating account of its discovery and exploitation in peace and war. The author, Amir D Aczel, is a research fellow in the history of science at Boston University.