Uranium, the strongest element on earth, has a fascinating story. This journey to the heart of this mineral takes us from slave camps in Africa to desert mesas, war councils, smugglers¿ routes, doomsday cults, jungle mines, and secret enrichment plants on five continents. In its 600-year history, uranium was first a nuisance to miners in the Middle Ages, then an inspiration to novelists and a boon to medicine, later a devastating weapon at the end of WW2, and eventually a polluter, a killer, a money waster, an enabler of failed states, and an excuse for a war with Iraq. It is now both the potential deliverer of Armageddon and a possible last defense against global warming. ¿An engrossing profile of the most deadly material in the earth¿s crust.¿.