Uranium

The Victorians Used To Use Uranium To Make Glowing Glassware

We love artwork made with innovative materials — but sometimes, it can go too far. This Victorian-era glassware, made with uranium to make it glow, is definitely in that category. Today, the glow of uranium glass, which you can still find in antique collections around the country, is mostly observed under a blacklight. In the…

io9 Ria Misra

Single-celled extremophiles can deal with toxic uranium in very different ways

At io9, we love extremophiles, the litte creatures which can survive and thrive in the most insane conditions our planet has to offer. A new study has shown that even when two extremophiles are very closely related, they can handle toxic conditions in very different ways. Metallosphaera sedula and Metallosphaera prunae are two extremely closely…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Why are these trees made of uranium?

Buried in the deserts of the world are fossils of trees and animals that died millions of years ago. Those fossils are often made of packed sediment. Occasionally, that sediment is uranium. Fossil hunters can find their quarries a number of ways. They can go where other finds have been discovered, and dig deeper. They…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Photos of daily life in the US government’s secret atomic city

In 1942, the US government acquired the town of Oak Ridge in eastern Tennessee. From then on, Oak Ridge was just like any other town — except for the fences, the guards, and the top-secret uranium separating facility. As part of the Manhattan Project, the United States Army Corps of Engineers acquired the town, swiftly…

io9 Lauren Davis

How big of a dose of radiation do you get when reading Playboy?

Glossy magazines often contain a substance that has elevated levels of uranium and thorium. This means that reading one for various lengths of time slightly heightens your level of radiation exposure. Find out how much magazines like Playboy are poisoning your body, even if they’re not corrupting your mind and polluting your soul. Whenever we…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Electro-bugs have appendages that zap the uranium out of water

The bacteria known as Geobacter sulfurreducens, when exposed to uranium, pretty much just die. But under certain conditions, they can grow appendages that can literally make uranium drop out of water like a stone. Scientists have found a way to get them to grow the right way, and may even be able to recreate them…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

These Men Were Caught Building Homemade Nuclear Reactors

Richard Handl, was arrested by the Swedish police for the possession of nuclear material including radium, americium, and uranium. The inquisitive man was creating a nuclear reactor to see if it’s possible to split atoms at home.” Crazy, but true. Handl isn’t the first man to be arrested with the early workings of a homemade…

Tech News Kelly

Where is all the Earth’s heat coming from?

Earth runs on massive amounts of heat, enough to melt iron in the core and create our magnetic field, enough to power the constant movement of plate tectonics. Where all this heat comes from is a mystery…but we’re getting closer. Forty-four trillion watts worth of heat is constantly flowing out of the Earth’s interior into…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Depleted Uranium Could Be Used to Create MASSIVE Hard Drives

Uranium that’s been depleted isn’t necessarily waste, according to researchers at Nottingham University. They think—besides making ammo and tank armor—it could be used as the basis for future hard drives thousands of times larger than current ones. You see a molecule comprised of two Uranium atoms has magnetic properties at low temperatures, making the element…

Tech News Adrian Covert

The Troubling Rise In Teen Uranium Enrichment

Kids these days. Take your eye off ’em for half a second, and they’re back in the lab enriching uranium to sell to rogue states. The Onion takes a hard look at the gateway science that’s ruining our children’s future. [Splitsider]

Tech News Brian Barrett

Glow-in-the-Dark Uranium Soap

Don’t worry, it’s not radioactive—nor has it been milled from the soaplakes of Chernobyl. But it is ocean scented! And organic. And vegan, and not tested on animals…you get the picture. Just $7. [PerpetualKid via 7Gadgets]

Tech News Kat Hannaford

Could Stuxnet Infect North Korea’s New Uranium Plant?

The Stuxnet worm may have a new target. The now-infamous malware was possibly built to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, while North Korea has unveiled a new uranium enrichment plant that might share components with Iran’s facilities. Are Pyongyang’s centrifuges vulnerable? While U.S. officials are trying to figure out how to respond to North Korea’s unveiling…

Tech News Kim Zetter and Spencer Ackerman - Wired

This Is a Natural Nuclear Reactor

Two billion years ago, planet Earth had natural nuclear fission reactors, burning inside its crust. You are looking at the remains of one of them, located in Oklo, Gabon. These reactors are thought to have happened by natural causes, as a result of the abundance and density of Uranium-235—a natural fissile uranium isotope present in…

Tech News Jesus Diaz

How To Build A DIY Nuke

The scariest thing is that building your own nuke doesn’t seem as hard as it should be. Dangerous and expensive? Yes. Impossible? Not so much. Kim Jong Il, please don’t read this. The list of items you’ll need: • $10 million • 150 acres of open space • A workshop • A lathe, a furnace,…

Tech News Casey Chan

Not Enough Uranium In the Moon

Bad news for colonists and lunar nazis: Contrary to previous reports, there’s not enough uranium in the Moon to guarantee nuclear power or commercial exploitation. That’s what cosmochemist Robert Reedy, part of the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft science team, says: Forget things like uranium mines or nuclear reactors,. The concentrations are very far from being of…

Space & Spaceflight Jesus Diaz

What does it mean to “enrich” Uranium?

A must-read entry for all future dictators. Take a look at the meaning of “enriching uranium,” why it’s necessary, and some of the processes used to do it. Let’s say that, as an up-and-coming president-for-life of some unfortunate swath of land, you order some of that yellow cake uranium that you’ve been hearing so much…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Return Of The UFO That Mined Uranium In Argentina During The 1970s?

An Argentinian newspaper reports that people have witnessed the return of UFOs that once mined uranium in the Frías area. In fact, this image is a cell phone snap of a recent UFO visit to the region. According to El Liberal: [The community of] Santiago del Estero was graced yet again by a new sighting…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Thorium, the Next Uranium

Wired has a fairly epic look into a material that could make nuclear power both clean and safe called thorium—named after the Norse god of thunder. Of course, scientists recognized its promise back in the 1950s. Whereas uranium is extremely rare, requires purification and creates waste that will be with us for hundreds of thousands…

Tech News Mark Wilson

A History of Uranium, the Rock That Nuked the World

Uranium was considered a useless material until very recently in human history, when it quite literally exploded into the public consciousness. Tom Zoellner’s engaging new book Uranium reveals how this once-humble element transformed human civilization. Zoellner has put together a fun and informative tale of humankind’s interactions with one of the earth’s most terrifying and…

io9 AndrewLiptak

Artist’s Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes

The “many worlds interpretation”, parallel universes, the Trousers of Time: call it what you will, but quantum theory has some surprising ideas about what happens after a quantum event, which artist Jonathan Keats is exploring in this new “toy”. It’s a ball of uranium-doped glass (no, really—it’s uranium!) next to a scintillation detector crystal inside…

Gadgets Kit Eaton

The Victorians Used To Use Uranium To Make Glowing Glassware

Single-celled extremophiles can deal with toxic uranium in very different ways

Why are these trees made of uranium?

Photos of daily life in the US government’s secret atomic city

How big of a dose of radiation do you get when reading Playboy?

Electro-bugs have appendages that zap the uranium out of water

These Men Were Caught Building Homemade Nuclear Reactors

Where is all the Earth’s heat coming from?

Depleted Uranium Could Be Used to Create MASSIVE Hard Drives

The Troubling Rise In Teen Uranium Enrichment

Glow-in-the-Dark Uranium Soap

Could Stuxnet Infect North Korea’s New Uranium Plant?

This Is a Natural Nuclear Reactor

How To Build A DIY Nuke

Not Enough Uranium In the Moon

What does it mean to “enrich” Uranium?

Return Of The UFO That Mined Uranium In Argentina During The 1970s?

Thorium, the Next Uranium

A History of Uranium, the Rock That Nuked the World

Artist’s Uranium-Glass Kits Let You Play God, Create New Universes

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