Modern Day Uranium Research Paper

Radioactive elements were not known of until about 1896 when a man named Henri Becquerel was experimenting with uranium to see why it was fluorescent under UV light. He believed that as the uranium sat in the sunlight, it absorbed sunlight and reemitted it on the paper, creating the film. He later found this to be incorrect when the uranium continued to create film when not exposed to sunlight. This was because the energy was not coming from the sun, but rather from inside the uranium. Uranium originated from the explosion of a star that created what we know today as the universe. When the planets were brought together, Uranium got buried deep underneath many other rocks, minerals, and elements. To this day Uranium in still buried underneath Earth’s crust with the same energy it had when it was first formed.

Uranium has provided many benefits for life on Earth and also put life in very dangerous situations. This

For example, during World War II many scientist came together to build an atomic bomb. This was called the “Chain Reaction”. The test bomb went off in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945 at 5:29 and 45 seconds in the morning and the real bomb went off in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6th, 1945. Alamogordo was a very dangerous place to be, but didn’t have as bad as an affect on life due to the fact that it was almost completely vacant. Hiroshima, though, had a big impact on the world. It caused a sickness called Acute Radiation Syndrome, killing many. Three days later the second atomic bomb went off in Nagasaki, Japan. This is when scientists realized that uranium can be controlled and converted into energy, replacing the pollutive coal. Uranium is very helpful in the way that it gives us energy, but it is also very dangerous. For example. in Chernobyl and Hiroshima nuclear power plants failed, releasing radiation to large amounts of land and exposing many people to