[REYES, JAN LOUIS T.

Uranium
This film has lived up to its reputation as an educational documentary film. My
brain was filled with information about uranium just by watching 50 minutes of the
documentary. The documentary started in an old mine in the Czech Republic where a
lot of pitchblende was shown. According to the dude, those rocks are primary ore-
mineral sources of uranium. He also told us that radium was used for cosmetics. There
were make-ups, toothpastes and even a radioactive bath. He even took a bath in a
radioactive bath that was supposed to make him healthier. Another use of uranium
showed in the documentary was for medical purposes. Due to its relatively strong
radiation, it was used to treat tumors. The dude went to the houses of the scientists that
had major contributions in discovering the true potential of uranium.

The most interesting thing that I have learned was that uraniums atom constantly
changes up to the point that it is no longer radioactive (lead). Whats interesting was
that the atom was sort of transforming itself without the help of other forces. The
instability of the humongous atom was the only force acting on the uraniums atom that
causes it to decrease in mass and transform, but whats more interesting is that in that
process of transforming, a whole lot of energy is being released. Now, according to
Einsteins equation (e=mc2), whenever mass is being removed from the uraniums atom,
energy is also being released. As soon as that principle was discovered, an idea (a very
dangerous idea) entered the minds of scientists, which was the idea of a Nuclear
Bomb. This was THE most dangerous idea that anyone has thought of. The idea was
pretty simple; Force the uraniums atom to split to release a full bucket load of energy
which will probably result to a VERY BIG BANG. If the atom splits, energy will be
released then because the two newly formed atoms arent equal to uraniums atom
when added, they are still unstable so the atoms will split again, releasing more energy
and forming new atoms and then the whole process will repeat until such that the atoms
cant split anymore. Now, thats got to be a lot of splitting which means a lot of energy
being released which also means BOOM! The idea was to only split the original atom
because the other half of the process will do itself which was eventually called chain
reaction.

I was not very interested in the parts when he visited the residences of the
scientists with major contribution on the study of the true potential of uranium. Well
yeah, I learned a lot but Im not fit for that kind of history stuff. He visited each scientist
and told their story along with their contribution. One that caught my attention was the
green glowing stuff placed inside a vial. I was really just amazed with the stuff because
it was glowing and it was inside a vial.