The discovery and use of Uranium

Iron has been collected, mined and processed into its metallic form since 1200 BCE. Large scale production only started in 1750, at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Steel, an alloy of Iron and Carbon is known for its purity and strength, and was patented by British inventor Sir Henry Bessemer in 1857. Steel helped humanity make stronger and larger tools, paving the way for industrialized progress.

Scaling up of iron production in Great Britain, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, led to a dramatic increase in the demand for wood. The creation of steel takes its toll on forests, with the requirement of charcoal, a residue of wood, to smelt iron and carbon.

Charcoal production, leading to demand for wood, has since then led to widespread deforestation with thousands of square kilometers of forests cut annually.

Radiation is not contagious. Once someone has removed their clothes and been washed, the radioactivity is internalized.

After nuclear disasters, hospitals do isolate radiation victims behind plastic screens, but that's because their immune systems have been weakened and they are at risk of being exposed to something they can’t handle

Television gets nuclear wrong not only for dramatic effects, but for the same reason humankind as a whole has been getting it wrong for over 60 years, which is that we’ve displaced our fears of nuclear weapons onto nuclear power plants.

• James Watt was born on January 19, 1736, in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to illness as a child, Watt was mostly homeschooled.
• His father was a shipbuilder. Watt grew up around his father's workshop and mentioned that it had a profound influence on his educational goals and the direction of his career.
• When Watt was 18, he traveled to London to study mathematical instrument making, which involved learning to build and repair devices such as quadrants, compasses, and scales.
• A year later, Watt returned to Scotland and opened a mathematical instrument shop at the University of Glasgow.

• In 1764, Watt received a Newcomen steam engine to repair.
• The 1712 Newcomen engine worked by condensing steam in a cylinder, which then creates enough push to power a piston.
• While fixing the engine, James Watt noticed that more than three-quarters of the steam was wasted due to repeated heating and cooling in the same cylinder.
• He then designed a cylinder that had a separate chamber to condense the steam in. Watt's engine kept the cylinder at a stable temperature as the steam condensed in a separate chamber. This was revolutionary.

Most companies only examine the most direct risks facing a company and tend to neglect secondary risks that can have an even greater impact.

Companies need to learn to evaluate aftereffects that could weaken whole value chains.

All differences in business models can create the potential for competitive risk exposure. This does not mean that a company should imitate its competitors, but that it should consider the risk when they have different strategies.

We overestimate threats that are less likely but easier to remember, like terrorism, and underestimate more complex threats, like climate change.

We are very bad at understanding statistical trends and long-term changes, because we have evolved to pay attention to immediate threats. 

Evolutionary theory suggests that we care most about just a few generations of family members: our great-grandparents to great-grandchildren. 

While we may understand what needs to be done to address climate change, it’s hard for us to see how the sacrifices required for generations existing beyond this short time span are worth it.

• Carbon is the backbone element of all organic polymers, and we are ourselves known to be carbon-based life forms.
• The movement of CO2 and other carbon compounds through biological components is known as the fast carbon cycle.
• The abiotic components like rocks, soil and oceans also circulate carbon compounds taking as much as 200 million years and is known as the slow carbon cycle.

1. Removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by plants and bacteria.
2. Generation of organic molecules, and building of biological mass in plants.
3. Consumption of plants by animals.
4. Respiration of animals restoring the CO2 in the atmosphere.
5. Dead and decaying organic matter getting decomposed.
6. Burning of organic matter releasing CO2 in the environment.
7. Fossil fuel combustion, volcanic eruptions and erosion returning CO2 in the atmosphere.

• Röntgen was born on March 26, 1845, in Lennep, Prussia.
• He enrolled in the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich as a student of mechanical engineering in Switzerland.
• In 1869, Röntgen obtained a Ph.D. and became an assistant professor.
• By 1874, he qualified as a Lecturer at Strasbourg University and became a professor in 1876.
• In 1888, Röntgen moved to become Chair of Physics at the University of Würzburg, where he made his world-changing discovery.

On November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen was conducting experiments using a cathode ray tube. He noticed that when he used the cathode ray tube, a board on the other side of his lab that was covered in phosphorus began to glow. Even if he covered the tube's light in a thick black cardboard box, the phosphorous board continued to glow.

It became clear to Röntgen that he had discovered a new type of ray.

Known problems with known solutions include the following:

• Global warming. It is partly caused by excessive emission of carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 emissions come from energy generation and can be replaced by nuclear power.
• Declining freshwater reserves could be tackled through greater use of desalination and recycling wastewater.

Once the gravity of these problems becomes apparent to a critical mass of humanity, solutions would be put in motion.

Known problems to which solutions are not only imaginable but (probably) within reach include:

• Malaria: Like smallpox that was fully eradicated in 1980, it is not much of a stretch to think that Malaria will be defeated through a combination of genetic engineering, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, vaccines, and drugs.
• Superbugs or deadly viruses: Crispr technology allows for easy alteration of DNA sequences and modifies gene function. Crispr could be used to turn bacterium or viruses machinery against itself.

These problems are bound to cause suffering until an appropriate solution is found.