Uranium on the Daily Show
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"Who knew that a rock could be so endlessly fascinating?
In this engaging geo-thriller, Tom Zoellner leads us through uranium's dark and colorful past and points us to its possibly terrifying future.
Put on your haz-mat suit and prepare yourself for a wild and ultimately sobering ride."
—Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers, and winner of the PEN award for nonfiction
Tom Zoellner has written a stunning book about he calls the "apocalyptic pull of uranium."
His reportage reads like a detective story with a cast of characters ranging from H.G. Wells to Robert Oppenheimer to A. Q. Khan.
His writing is at once lyrical, historically informative and deeply investigative. Zoellner's engrossing history of uranium is a formidable achievement."
—Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2006
"There may be nothing on this Earth that more powerfully symbolizes human hope and dread than the 'unstable element' known as uranium.
Tom Zoellner has spun the curious, epoch-defining story of this yellow dirt into journalistic gold."
—Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic and Survival City
"A riveting journey into perilous terrain."
—Booklist
"Zoellner possesses the gift of making complex science clear, while weaving the saga of the historically unwanted rock into a compelling narrative."
—Christian Science Monitor
"In this fine piece of journalism, Zoellner does for uranium what he did for diamonds in The Heartless Stone—he delves into the complex science, politics and history of this radioactive mineral, which presents the best and worst of mankind."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A cogent, fascinating investigation of one
powerful rock that offers a clear explanation of the current
state of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, readable for even
those who would prefer not to dwell on the matter.”
—New West magazine
“This multi-faceted investigation of
uranium sheds light on the rock in new and interesting ways, but
doesn’t shy away from the controversy that surrounds it.”
—Santa Fe Reporter
“One long, cool look at the history of
uranium”
—Salt Lake Tribune