Radon is one of the noble gases in the periodic table. It is the heaviest, naturally occurring one among them. Due to its size, it is the most likely to establish compounds with other elements, compared to the other noble gases. However, its radioactivity easily breaks the bonds that are established between Radon and other elements. Thus, Radon has very few known compounds.

Radon forms in the radioactive decay chain of Uranium, which then forms Thorium, then Radium, and finally Radon. Radon condenses to form a solid that glows with yellow light due to its radioactivity. The half-life of Radon changes depending on the isotope at hand, but the longest half-life detected is around 92 hours.

Radon naturally occurs underground, and does not dissolve much in water or other liquids there. When it leaks above surface in the form of gas, it tends to accumulate in the not-well-ventilated parts of the houses, e.g. basements. Exposure to Radon gas is linked with cancer, and so it is considered as a health hazard. On the other side, the hot springs that contain trace amounts of Radon gas are used rarely to cure heart disease.

The following is an allegorical story in the form of a letter about how Radon develops in nature.

I am the only survivor from a quadruplet. One of my sisters survived only 108 minutes after birth. The death of the second one followed about half hour later. I spent my childhood with my only remaining sister. Our mother was not there either, because she had died while giving birth to us.

As we were growing into our adolescence, we shared many secrets with my sister, be them adventurous or romantic. She was a sister, a close friend, and sometimes a mom. When she died in her flourishing age, I not only lost my third sister but also lost a mom for the second time.

Since then, without bothering myself whether they are friend or foe, I let people approach me. I show affinity to them so much so that I am considered as the most sociable noble. When they start enjoying the beauties displayed on me, I am stressed by my need of privacy and security. And, I easily push everyone away by intimidating them with the very beauties they were attracted to.

So, life has been a bottomless solitude for me… Yes, being alone is part of being noble, and I need my privacy in my ivory tower. But I’d rather not have impenetrable walls between me and people.

What a discrepancy! I have a habit of intimidating people to push them away, but I am complaining from an endless solitude at the same time… Why am I like this? It feels as if there is an unknown person in me, over which I have no control, who is doing things using my body. Should I cry for help: I am stolen!

I thought about this a lot. Was it a psychological inheritance I received from the family? You know that my mother died when giving birth to me and that my sisters followed her. My grandmother also died when giving birth to my mother, and my grand-grandmother died when giving birth to my grandmother. I don’t know if it is this strangeness that makes me instinctively seek solitude, so much so that my husband could not stand me. I told him that our relationship could only survive in the polar cold places, and he said he can stay cold but not in a place where there is no one else. Eventually, our marriage ended, after which I realized that I was pregnant.

But life goes on, you know, whether you are a noble who pathetically seeks solitude, or if your mother died when giving birth to you, or if you are a pregnant mom left to herself… “The great gears of life turn with irresistible momentum. You either keep pace with it, or get smashed in it.” That’s what my mother said in her letter to me. And that letter is all I have of her. Though, however much I would like her to be with me, and share my joys of success and sorrows of failure. Maybe she would reveal precious life lessons to me, or whisper her secrets into my ear. Maybe she would reprimand me sometimes… Not a single moment lived with her, not even a smack… I wished that this not be the lot of my baby, but how?

I thought of Prophet Abraham’s wife, Hagar. Alarmed by her baby’s cries, she had rushed between two distant hills in search of finding some people to come for help. God had replied to her efforts by creating a spring in the middle of the desert, just near her, and guiding travelers there.

Following Hagar’s example, I tried taking refuge near people so that my baby would not be in a lonely world. In order not to disturb them, I chose their least used places. But people cast me out of there, lest I contract some illness. I tried fancy yellow dresses to make myself look friendly. But, instead of becoming friends, they put me in glass chambers. I tried to help people with some of their diseases, but except a few, they shunned me since I was too risky to be adopted into medical practice.

Oh my God, despite all my efforts, my baby was going to come into a solitary world like her mom’s. I knew I was going to be alone when giving birth, and so was my baby. There was a sour smile on my face every time I thought of her…

But maybe… Maybe one day, God would guide travelers here, and she could join them, and prosper wherever she ends up with. Maybe she would have a stable family, and become the mother of many. And I hope, even in her well-established state then, she could still keep her lineage at heart, from our grandest grandmother all the way down to her mother: Uranium, Thorium, Radium, and, me, Radon.

What could I do to make sure that my daughter holds on to her past? Could I write a letter, just like my mother left to me? Maybe that was a good option, since I inherited from my mother all the letters left from mother to daughter starting with the grandma Uranium. Yes, I could abide by the tradition of letters, and tell my daughter how much I loved her even before I could hold her in my arms. I could tell her that she had appeared in my dark night like a bright star, although she was yet in my womb. Maybe this way, she could feel at ease when with people, unlike her mother. She could make real friends and be happy with them, even if I won’t see her once.

Yes, I won’t see you, sweetie. It is what the doctors told while giving me your glad tidings: that I had cancer, and that my body would not sustain a birth. I had to choose between carrying you and a life without you. I chose to live with you, my precious, even if that meant the end of my life when yours bloomed. When you are going to be reading this letter, I’ll be watching you with your aunts. Shine and make us smile with your beauty.

Love,
Your mom Radon

All methods of estimating “time” use the same principle: measuring the velocity of natural processes that show continuity over time. One of the most advanced methods of chronometry today is to use the velocity of quartz crystal vibrations when exposed to an electric field. The wristwatches we wear in our daily life are well-known applications of this method. Another method of measuring time is to measure the rate of decay of radioactive elements.

However, having a process with which to measure is not sufficient. To measure the time that has passed correctly there are three requirements that need to be satisfied. First of all, it is essential that the process is stable and immutable, even during the period before we were able to observe it. Secondly, the beginning state should be known. For example, the length of a candle before being lighted or the amount of water in a cup before being boiled should be known. Thirdly, the process should not be influenced by any outer effects.

Today, all these three factors have been applied in studies of measuring time. But, when the question comes down to Geochronometry (Measurement of geologic time, as through isotopic radioactive decay), they are somehow more difficult to apply. Since the selected process starts before the beginning of history, we do not have methods to observe the process directly or to make sure that these three requirements were met then as today. And this is where the problem starts.

For instance, we can use the salinity of the oceans as a means of measuring the age of the Earth (This method was developed in 1898 by Irish geologist John Joly). This is a promising method, because it is assumed that the amount of salt in the water of the ocean was originally zero, and that salt was propelled by rainwater and rivers from the soil. The encouraging fact about this method is that the amount of salt brought to the oceans by rainwater and rivers is constant (approximately 540 million tons of salt annually). Today, the average density of salt in oceans is nearly 32 grams per liter. By using this ratio, we can calculate the total amount of salt in the oceans as being approximately 50 quadrillion tons. When we divide this number by the amount of salt propelled annually, we can find the age of the Earth in years.

Joly calculated this as being 100 million years using this method. However, considering the study in light of the three requirements mentioned above, the shortcomings of this method are obvious. Firstly, we cannot really be sure that the amount of salt propelled was static in the geological past. There is good reason to think that the climate and annual rainfall might have been significantly different in the past. Ice ages, great droughts, excessive rains, and the undeterminable effects of these factors may have all played a part. Secondly, it is impossible to be sure that the oceans were salt-free at the beginning. They may have contained some salt (recent research carried out in the Atlantic demonstrates the possibility that salt could have penetrated through to the oceans from the magma layer). Thirdly, some external influences may have affected this so-called stable process. There is a large and self-replicating circulation of salt in the atmosphere. New clues lead us to think that the amount of salt in oceans today is stable. As soon as the salt propelled by rivers accumulates, it evaporates at the same speed. While a huge amount of salt evaporates in biological processes, a greater amount penetrates to the depths of the seas.

The Uranium-Lead Method

All the methods that estimate the age of the Earth suffer from the same shortcomings to some degree. The radiometric age estimation method, which can estimate age up to 4.5 million years, consists of measuring radioactive elements that have a long half-life and that maintain their radioactivity over a long period. These elements are uranium and thorium, which decay into helium and lead, rubidium, which decays into strontium, and potassium, which decays into argon. However, as we will see, the Uranium-Lead method has been given great importance, in particular by evolutionists.

The basic principle involved is that radioactive uranium 238, uranium 235, and thorium 232 atoms eventually decay into miscellaneous lead atoms, without any trigger (in addition, uranium 238 decays into helium gas).

Interestingly, the decay rate of each element is definite. Uranium and thorium atoms periodically radiate alpha particles. However, it is unpredictable which atom will decay when. But in any substantial mass of the mineral there will be many billions of atom, and with very large numbers of events the “law of large numbers” operates to produce a statistically predictable result.

The significant part of this theory is that radiogenic lead 206, which is not radioactive and which is decayed from radioactive uranium 238, is found in rocks. However, it differs chemically from lead 204, which is neither radioactive nor radiogenic. To estimate the age of a rock, it is split and the amounts of radioactive uranium and radiogenic lead found are measured. Since the decay rate is known, it is possible to calculate the age of the rock.

The half-life of uranium 238 – one of the isotopes used – is calculated as being 4.5 million years. This means that half of any amount of uranium 238 will decay into lead 206 in 4.5 million years. For instance, if an investigation shows that half of a rock consists of uranium 238, and the other half consists of lead 206, which is the final product of uranium 238, the rock is then 4.5 million years old (although this number has not been calculated by a direct measurement, it is an average age for the crust of the Earth).

If radiogenic lead (lead 206 that has decayed from uranium 238, lead 207 that has decayed from uranium 235, and lead 208 that has decayed from thorium 232) are truly the products of radioactive decay then it is assumed that these rocks contained no radiogenic lead at the very start of the process of rock formation. This is a reliable starting point for calculations. Simi-larly, it is assumed that radiogenic lead cannot penetrate rocks in any other way, and conse-quently there is no process that can affect the decay process. However, when examined carefully, we can see that this is not really the case. A new process in which “natural” lead transforms into a form that cannot be distinguished from radiogenic lead was discovered by experimentation (Cook, 1966). This transformation occurs by natural lead taking hold of free neutrons. These neutrons are atoms that have the energy to transform natural lead into radiogenic lead. Then what is the source of the free neutrons?

The Origin of Lead 208

The source of lead 208 lies in a radioactive mine bed where natural fission (the division of the nucleus of uranium) has taken place. (A uranium bed were such natural fission occurs has been found in The Gabon.) In this uranium bed, while some uranium 238 atoms decay into lead 206, others divide by natural fission and produce neutrons. These neutrons simultaneously transform natural lead (lead 204) and radiogenic lead (lead 206) to lead 208 isotopes in a gradual process. This isotope cannot be distinguished experimentally from lead 208, a product of the alpha decay of thorium 232. Therefore, the lead 208 isotope emerges from two different sources. However, Darwinists state that all lead 208 isotopes detected are the product of thorium 232, which would mean that there is a large amount of radiogenic lead, and subsequently that the process continues for a long time. Significantly, this is a mechanism that would tip our measurements in favor of an “old” Earth.

In the neutron capture process, the isotopic values of lead would be systematically changed: lead 206 would be converted into lead 207, and lead 207 into lead 208 by taking on a single neutron. What is interesting is that lead 208 makes up more than half of the lead in the bed. According to Darwinists, this means that there was a large amount of naturally occurring thorium 232 in that bed, which later changed into lead 208. However, Melvin Cook, who carried out research in uranium beds in Zaire and Canada (the largest uranium beds in the world) states that, although the beds do not contain thorium 232, they do contain a large amount of lead 208. This can only mean that lead 208 results from lead 207 taking hold of a neutron. He also states that all radiogenic lead can be accounted for in this way.

Other people have tried to denigrate Cook, a man who believed in “creation”, and his studies. Among these is the geologist Brent Dalrymple from the U.S. Geological Survey. Neither Dalrymple, who argued that the level of free neutrons were too low to make any significant difference in the number of lead 208 as lead isotopes in the beds, nor could anyone else provide a satisfactory explanation to why, although there was no thorium 232 in the beds, lead 208 was found in huge amounts. Uranium decay not only degrades the most important criteria of a reliable geocronometry method, but it also degrades the criteria of the process, i.e that it is stable, immutable, and not intervened with. Uranium, which naturally emerges as an oxide rather than a metal, and which shows a very high capacity of dissolving in water because of this property, ekes out of its original bed with water. Its effect in age estimation is unpredictable, as while some parts of the bed are poor in uranium, other parts are rich.

The Helium Problem

Beside lead, one of the final products produced in the decay of uranium 238 is radiogenic helium, the atomic weight of which is 4. It is thought that a significant proportion of helium in the atmosphere is radiogenic helium that emerges in the decay process that has continued throughout history. If the uranium-lead age estimation method is reliable, then the amount of helium in the atmosphere must suggest an age in agreement to the age provided by radiogenic lead estimation. However, the ages acquired from the two methods are significantly different. If the Earth were 4.6 billion years old, then there would be roughly 100 trillion tons of radiogenic helium 4 in the atmosphere. Actually, there are only around 3.5 billion tons present – several thousand times less than there should be (0.035 % to be precise).

Writing in Nature on the “mystery” of the Earth’s missing radiogenic helium, Melvin Cook says: “…Hence more than 1,020 grams of helium should have passed into the atmosphere since the ‘beginning.’ Because the atmosphere contains only 3.5×1,015 grams of helium 4, it must also have passed out through the exosphere, and that the present rate of loss through the atmosphere balances the rate of exudation from the lithosphere.”

Cook says that uniformitarian geologists have attempted to explain this discrepancy by assuming that the other 99.96 percent has escaped from Earth’s gravitational field into space – but this process has not been observed. In 1984, Dalrymple argued a mechanism that can explain this difference and that provides a reply to Cook’s proposal: “Banks and Holzer have shown that the polar wind can account for an escape of 2 to 4 million ions/cm2 per second of helium 4, which is nearly identical to the estimated production flux of 2.51.5 million atoms/cm2 per second.”

There are two things that make Banks and Holzer’s findings unsuitable for the purposes to which Dalrymple tries to fit them. First of all, if the Earth really is 4.5 billion years old, then its atmosphere would have to lose helium at a rate somewhere around 1,016 atoms/cm2 per second, or some ten orders of magnitude faster than Dalrymple’s figure, to account for the missing helium.

Secondly, the numbers Dalrymple used were calculated 30 years ago. In that period, most scientists believed that the Earth moved in empty space (i.e., that nothing encapsulated the Earth but emptiness), and that hydrogen and helium atoms escaped to emptiness. New studies have shown that, rather than losing helium, the atmosphere gains a significant amount of helium. Since the Earth rotates around the Sun, it does not move in empty space, it moves in the atmosphere of the Sun, which is made up of mainly helium and hydrogen that have emerged from the nuclear processes that occur on the Sun. According to research, the Earth gains helium in this way as well.

In his book (1987) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, space scientist James Lovelock writes: “The outermost layer of the air, so thin as to contain only a few hundred atoms per cubic centimeter, the exosphere, can be thought of as merging into the equally thin outer atmosphere of the Sun. It used to be assumed that the escape of hydrogen atoms from the exosphere gave the Earth its oxygen atmosphere. Not only do we now doubt that this process is on a sufficient scale to account for oxygen, but we rather suspect that the loss of hydrogen atoms is offset or even counterbalanced by the flux of hydrogen from the Sun.”

Lovelock mentions hydrogen, not helium. Helium is four times heavier than hydrogen and exists in abundance in the Sun’s atmosphere, since it is the main product of the nuclear fusion process on the Sun. If hydrogen were gained instead of being lost, it would be reasonable to expect this to occur for helium as well. Cook says: “If we take the amount of helium 4 measured in the atmosphere and then apply the radioactive age estimation technique, we will find that the age of the Earth is approximately 175,000 years. This invalidates our reliability criteria; the possible flow of helium from external sources interrupts this process.”

Cook is not alone in his thoughts. In articles published in influential journals, similar suspicions have been stated. Funkhouser and Naughton from the Hawaiian Geophysics Institute calculated the ages of volcanic rocks that had emerged from Mount Kilauea by using the potassium-argon method and calculated them to be nearly 3 million years old. However, it is know that these rocks were formed during a volcanic eruption in 1801. McDougall from the Australian National University calculated the age of lava in New Zealand to be up to 465,000 years old, even though it was known to be less than 1,000 years old (Milton 1997).

As a result, the reliability of radioactive age estimation is doubtful. What is being measured is the amount of products that have decayed, not the rate of decay. It is also difficult to discuss the origin of these products. Subsequently, all radioactive geocronometry methods can be said to be highly flawed and to lack reliability. The only reliable result that emerges from the incompatibility between uranium-lead age and uranium-helium age is the conclusion that radioactive age estimation is totally unreliable. The methods based on the decay of potassium into argon and rubidium into strontium suffer from the above mentioned shortcomings, in addition to others. However, some scientists try hard to advocate one single idea: evolution. The evolution lobby dampens the volume of courageous scientists, such as Milton and Cook, damages their prestige and frightens others by the overwhelming atmosphere they have created. All methods developed to estimate the age of the Earth are full of inconsistencies. Only one among them (based on the radioactive decay of elements, such as uranium) provided an age of millions of years for the Earth. While that single technique was supported enthusiastically by Darwinists, all others were ignored. This was because according to Darwinist theory, evolution required a long geological past in order to display its results in the long term. This propaganda program by the Darwinists was so successful that almost everyone, including scientists from different fields, have come to believe that radioactive age estimation is the only unquestionable and valid method for age estimation. Yet, as we have discussed above, all of these widely accepted beliefs lack sufficient support.

References

• Milton, R., Shattering the Myths of Darwinism. Park Street Press. Vermont, 1997.
• Lovelock, J. E., Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford University Press, 1997.

In May 1994, the world received a shock when 6 grams of highly purified (99.7 %) weapons-grade plutonium-239 was found in the house of a German businessman. It originated from one of Russia’s plutonium plants. This was the first of several such cases. In one raid, 310 grams of weapons grade ptutonium-239 was uncovered, a third of what is needed to make a massive kiloton nuclear bomb. It is believed that these ‘incidents’ are just the tip of the iceberg. The world is justifiably alarmed at the prospect of uncontrolled plutonium proliferation.

Plutonium is one of the most dangerous materials on earth. Five kilograms is enough to make a crude nuclear weapon. Some experts even believe that only one kg will suffice. Of course this is not the only reason that makes it one of the most dangerous of materials. Less than one thousandth of a gram is enough to cause cancer if inhaled. Plutonium is the second of the transuranium elements with an atomic number 94. It is a silvery looking and highly reactive material. It is so reactive that it is processed in special chambers filled with inert gases to prevent it from reacting with atmospheric gases and the moisture in the air, but it is not the reactivity of plutonium that attracts attention: it is its radioactivity. All transuranium elements are highly radioactive, but only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally, both in very minute amounts. The others are manufactured. The fact that plutonium occurs naturally means that it is stable enough to last if it can be produced by some means. Actually, it is very stable; its most prevalent form has a half-life of 24,131 years. Therefore; if manufactured, it is not easy to get rid of. Nearly all the plutonium that exists on earth today is produced this way.

The road to plutonium production

Of all radioactive materials, three are extremely important for nuclear energy generation by fission: plutonium-239, uranium- 233 and uranium-235. These are the only 3 radioactive materials which can provide a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction. This means that by bringing together a critical amount of any of these three, a chain reaction can be initiated. This is the principle behind nuclear energy and nuclear weaponry.

Since the 1950’s, scientists have believed that plutonium and not uranium may be the ultimate solution to the world’s energy problem. Although uranium can be found naturally in several minerals, the fissile isotope U-235 is extremely low. With plutonium and uranium are both rare, one may ask ‘why has plutonium become so important?’. The answer is simple: in fast breeder reactors, more plutonium is produced than burnt. This process uses an isotope of uranium U-238, which is not fissile itself but more common than the fissile isotope U- 235. If you irradiate U-238-which we have plenty of-with highly energetic neutrons, it will capture them and eventually decompose into the most dangerous form of plutonium, Pu- 239 , by two successive 13-decays. After that step, plutonium is chemically separated from other material by means of remote controlled facilities. So if you have unusable U-238 you can turn it into highly desirable Pu-239 by using some U-235 or Pu-239. Once you have bred enough plutonium, you can start feeding in the new plutonium without the need for more U- 235 as fuel. The only drawback is that reprocessing and purifying it to use as nuclear fuel is not easy.

Today, things have changed. Countries determined to stay with commercial nuclear energy production need not use plutonium, fuels made of low-enriched uranium will suffice and unlike the past, reserves are enough to sustain nuclear energy production commercially. These fuels are not weapons-usable and are much cheaper and easier to handle. Reprocessing plutonium for reintroduction as nuclear-fuel is a very complex, dangerous and expensive process.

Given these facts, we may wonder why nations want to possess plutonium for nuclear energy generation. Another phenomenon differentiates plutonium from uranium: unlike uranium, all forms of plutonium can be made into weapons (although some mixtures of isotopes are less desirable to a weapons designer). If a nation insists on using costly plutonium rather than cheaper low-enriched uranium for energy generation, one may suspect that the country has other intentions.

Politics of plutonium

Plutonium has proliferated since 1942. Twenty-two countries possess or control separated plutonium in various forms and amounts, either for military or commercial use. As the nuclear warheads are decommissioned according to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, stockpiles are growing sharply in the world. Although long-standing governmental and commercial secrecy make estimates highly uncertain, roughly 1,100 metric tons of the material exist today. Approximately 260 tons of that stockpile are deployed in the form of surplus nuclear weapons. Of the roughly 650 tons of plutonium in commercial programs, approximately 530 tons are contained in untreated spent reactor fuel, while roughly 120 tons are stored in weapons-usable form or recycled as fuel awaiting potential future use. Every year, the world’s reactors collectively generate 60 or 70 extra tonnes of plutonium and at the moment there is no law against reprocessing it. By the turn of the century, this is estimated to reach around 1700 tonnes. It is calculated that by the year 2003, Russia will have accumulated enough plutonium to make 21,700 crude weapons, whereas US will have accumulated enough for 18,100 weapons.

Nuclear policies are among the most sensitive and closely guarded secrets of any nation. States are unwilling to disclose data related to plutonium stockpiles. International non-proliferation movements are pressurizing governments. Japan has a special attachment to plutonium since their nuclear energy generation policy was originally based on plutonium. It is now the only country to rely on plutonium for nuclear energy and is said to be reviewing its policy. A few months ago, US had declared that it would stop the transfer of plutonium handling technology to Japan because there was the risk that Japan may be using this technology to make nuclear weapons. After months of pressure from the international community and internal non-proliferation groups, last month Japan declared that at the end of 1993 it had 4684 kgs of plutonium inside the country and 6197 kgs in France and Britain waiting to be shipped to Japan, and became the first nation to give the exact figures about its stockpiles. Previously, US had started to declassify some documents about its plutonium stockpiles and reported that it has produced 89 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium since 1945 and it has 33.5 tonnes of it now stored in Texas. Russians can’t even decide how much plutonium they have. There are discrepancies between the accounting systems of their military and the ministry of atomic energy.

Before the end of the cold war there was the perceived threat of a nuclear war. The threat has now changed. The loose security measures in the underfunded Russian and other former eastern-block nuclear industries are a much greater threat than a nuclear war or the hazards of nuclear waste. A nuclear war is a remote possibility because everybody seems to be aware that it would be a zero-sum game with no winners. Also nuclear waste disposal technology is so powerful that once the waste is disposed, it is nearly impossible for the nuclear waste to return to circulation or effect the human environment again. On the other hand, growing stockpiles of nuclear material that can be made into nuclear weapons is certainty a greater threat, especially when it is in unsafe hands prepared to sell at very low rates. Russia has reported 900 illegal attempts to gain entry to its nuclear facilities and another 700 cases where nuclear workers tried to smuggle out nuclear material. We don’t have any reason to believe that all attempts were stopped. Some material may well have been smuggled secretly. Some experts say that it is possible to make a nuclear bomb equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki, out of 7 kilograms of spent nuclear fuel instead of 5 kilograms of weapons grade plutonium and the know how for it is at large now. That technology is now available to everybody who wants to learn it, from the US documents of 1950’s that are no longer classified. Add the international loose measures for the monitoring and reprocessing of nuclear waste to this and the threat we are face to face today is clearly evident.

An institution called the International Atomic Energy Agency is responsible for monitoring the nuclear reactors in countries with no nuclear arms and that have signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. It keeps an eye on those countries and makes sure no plutonium is secretly diverted to military use. There are countries like India and Israel that are not signatories and evidence that IAEA can be fooled. Both North Korea and Iraq recently declared that they had secretly produced 3 grams of weapons-grade plutonium. Even if the countries are unable to divert plutonium to the military, this does not prevent them from developing nuclear weapons. A nation can develop other parts of the bomb such as the case and electronics, and when the nation’s leader decides it is time to have a nuclear bomb, plutonium can be directed to the military. The nation would have a nuclear bomb in a few days.

With plutonium, the odds are weighed against the well being of humankind. If nation states persist in the costly production and use of plutonium, they risk weapons proliferation, environmental devastation and damage to human health. In addition to its dangers as a deadly nuclear weapon constituent, the release of plutonium into the environment also poses health and environmental risks. Even if plutonium does not reach and damage the environment and human health via the routes mentioned above, there is always the danger posed by the nuclear powered warships and submarines as a rather easy way to a nuclearly polluted environment. Four sunken nuclear submarines lie in the depths of the Atlantic and there are reports that the reactors and the war-heads they were carrying are leaking plutonium and other nuclear materials into the ocean. This may turn out to be the biggest environmental and health hazard ever encountered, if these nuclear materials enter the food chain. Although there is no risk that at that depth, fish will eat these materials, it is always possible that they can be carried to suitable places by strong ocean currents where fish may feed. A stronger possibility is that it may be eaten by plankton which is in turn eaten by fish. Indeed, the risks are enough to require that plutonium production is judged too dangerous to allow its dangerous continuous production. Building on the international non-proliferation regime and current practices in the nuclear industry, a more comprehensive and specific regime must be constructed to manage plutonium and hasten its elimination. But such an international step is not that easy to take. 161 countries are signatories to the non-proliferation treaty and any change such as the banning of plutonium reprocessing, requires that they all agree on the subject and sign again.

These risks might be more tolerable if plutonium held unquestionable economic value in the foreseeable future. But no proven technology exists to generate electricity from plutonium or highly enriched uranium at economically competitive costs. As noted above, fuels made of low enriched uranium are both cheaper and less dangerous. Also, they do not pose comparable health, environmental or security hazards. The reserves of low-cost, low-enriched uranium accessible world-wide may run out, but not before the late 21st century, and then only if nuclear energy use increases markedly without eliciting increased supplies from either more efficient uranium handling or discovery of new reserves. Such an outcome is unlikely. Plutonium for long-term research and development programs will always be available in the form of spent fuel, even after the large surpluses of separated plutonium are reduced.

Today, the nuclear arms race is not accelerating as it was in the late 1940s and again in the late l970s; rather, it is being reversed, and unlike the 1970s, plutonium is not seen as the millennial solution to the energy needs of the world or as the salvation for the international nuclear power industry. Today, plutonium is increasingly perceived as a global problem that must be solved. Even the research grants for the reprocessing technology of plutonium are coming to a halt. Central to the establishment of an international plutonium regime is giving priority to gaining control of surplus stockpiles of separated plutonium that could be most readily reintroduced into weapons. The difficulties lie not in the mechanics but in the politics of international storage and ultimate disposal. Because it will take time to determine how and where to dispose of plutonium, the issue of safe, secure storage must be addressed at once.

By internationalizing the disposal and safety problem, the plutonium regime could provide a forum for scientists, engineers, environmentalists and others to examine the world’s technical capabilities and geography in order to identify the best possible options for disposing of plutonium and other radioactive materials.

We have described elsewhere the chain of divine wonders in the structure of the earth. The 23.5 degrees inclination of its axis is a matter for such delicate computation that it is possible for neither physics nor philosophy to pre-calculate it. For example, if the earth was inclined 25 degrees, the polar caps would melt in a few hundred years, and the oceans would be flooded with ice. If the slant was 22 degrees, on the other hand, Arctic ice would invade the whole of Europe, and life would be possible only in the equatorial regions of the earth. The All-Mighty emphasizes this important insight at the beginning of the verse in the description of spreading out and ordering.

Again, this spreading out and ordering of the earth is closely related to its rotation on its axis every 24 hours. If the earth had completed one revolution every 30 hours, such tremendous winds would have ensued that the earth would have become a hurricane-ridden desert for living things. If, on the contrary, the earth had rotated every 20 hours, most plants would have been unable to complete their biological activity and fallen victim to droughts.

The spreading out and ordering mentioned in the first part of the sacred verse, then, is obtained for the rotation of the earth by the harmonious inclination of the earth’s axis. This result, if ever, if left to chance could be achieved, if ever only after millions of trials.

God’s presentation, in various parts of the Qur’an of His marvels of order and measure, aims at closing all doors to unbelief with the mathematical and physical order of the earth and the universe.

The most significant message of the verse is the proper balance of things produced from the earth. What are these things, and what are these harmonious measures?

Scientific research to date links the chain of life to the balanced interactions between plants, animals and bacteria. The bacteria are charged with transferring nitrogen from animals to plants. Plants produce the oxygen needed by animals and other organisms, and animals supply both carbon dioxide and–through bacteria–nitrogen to plants.

While the chain of life proceeds in this manner, it is imperative that the proportion of oxygen in the air remains close to 20%. This is where the most delicate of subtleties begins. All smoke and exhalations are converted by plants into oxygen. One would need a computer to calculate the ratio of plant species needed to maintain the oxygen in the air at 20%.

There has to be a divine computer that can regulate the amount of plants needed for the smoke from chimneys and the oxygen consumption of humans and provide the necessary oxygen to the air. This incredible calculation can only be considered as a divine miracle. The Qur’an declares: ‘The things produced in the earth are subject to proper balance’ and its wisdom reaches us across a gulf of fourteen centuries, from a time when none of the above facts were known.

Millions of years ago, a vast blanket of flora covered the earth. The purpose of this was to increase the oxygen balance of the atmosphere. Dinosaurs, the animals benefitting from these plants, roamed on earth. Finally, the oxygen ratio began to exceed 20%. The consumption of the plants by dinosaurs and their exhalation of carbon dioxide was no longer able to balance the gigantic production of oxygen by the plants.

At this point, a vast geological upheaval occurred, and both the flora and the dinosaurs vanished from the face of the earth. Then, God produced all fish, birds and mammals at the same time. (That is the latest valid hypothesis, the views of the diehard evolutionists having been superseded some time ago.)

As the verse tells us, the volume of plants is in such harmonious balance that a tree has been assigned to purify the fumes of every smoking chimney. Man–including those who think they believe–is in such heedlessness that he can never fathom these delicate calculations of Divine Omniscience, and for this reason cannot intuit the secret of ‘Provider of the worlds.’ The respect, accorded in Islam to trees and the importance assigned to planting new trees stand in recognition of the above facts.

Let me now provide some further incredible calculations.

For nearly every illness, the Great Creator has fashioned a plant or microbe as a cure. How can the ignorant, altogether lacking evidence, call this system a coincidence! To create the earth, to settle human beings there, and then to keep ready all the botanical and bacterial remedies for all their ailments in the laboratories of nature!

There are enough foxglove plants in the world to provide digitalis to cure all heart patients. There are also enough hashish plants to ease the sufferings of all the painfully ill, yet the medicine of that plant has become black market stuff under the pressure of heedless selfishness and is used to provide pleasure for the lunatic fringe.

Another example of the things produced in harmonious balance in the earth: until about a hundred years ago, firewood met the heating and energy requirements of men. If coal and oil had not been discovered, the forests would all have been the last of their kind on earth. But just at the right moment, the divine computer delivered the coal and later, the oil, that it had prepared millions of years ago, and in such measure as to provide enough for all human beings. Unfortunately man, the prisoner of egotism, is now preparing for the greatest war in history with oil as the centre of the controversy. And what of the House of Islam? Because it has not truly embraced the Qur’an, because it has been unable to understand it and to realize new scientific advances, it now stands dazed, looking in bewilderment at even the wealth gushing from its own backyard.

Let us now look at the proper balance of the earth’s constitution in terms of its metals.

We do not know the proportions of metals in the central core of the earth and the liquid mantle surrounding it. But in the crust on which we live, the elements are distributed in such proportion that it is as if a scientific committee had provided a shopping list and the orders had been met by an infinitely powerful factory. Each substance is present in the earth’s crust to the exact proportion that the level of civilization ordained by God demands. Compounds of silicon, iron and potassium are the basic substances for residential construction. If even one of these had been missing, we could not have cities.

Until recently we didn’t know what blessing water is. Today we know that the calcium bicarbonate in water is the best organizer of digestion. Vital substances such as salt are distributed over the earth in such proportion that man has almost arrived in a fully equipped biological laboratory.

Have you ever considered that sea water has been evaporating, and then returning to the seas by rivers, for millions of years? During this process, new substances are transported to the seas from land, and yet the composition of sea water never changes. Observe the magnificence of this miracle of the divine computer: millions of events take place, yet the harmonious balance imposed by God on the earth’s produce does not change. For the Guarded Tablet is also, in a sense, a law of the Qur’an.

Returning to metals, there are some whose names have been heard of only in the last 150 years, such as beryllium, uranium, cadmium, tungsten, tantalum and gallium. When these were first discovered, everyone regarded them merely as laboratory curiosities. Only later was it realized that these are the indispensable building blocks of advanced technology. From the utilization of atomic energy to high temperature technological activities, each one of these metals represents some essential property, and their presence on earth is adjusted according to the part they were predestined to play.

One of the greatest wonders of the planet earth, which the All-Mighty furnished before lowering man upon it, are the radioactive substances of the world. These are present in the earth’s crust in such perfect proportion that its measure could not be ordered by any scientific committee. On the one hand, there is uranium-235 to provide nuclear power, safe in its natural setting yet dangerous when purified; on the other hand, carbon-14 to enable biological activity. And how wonderful are mineral springs whose waters, which bear moderate amounts of radioactive substances, dispense health to millions of people all over the world.

Consider what we have said about the radioactivity of the earth from the reverse point of view. If uranium had been present in the earth in the form of its uranium-235 isotope exclusively, the world would have become a witch’s cauldron a short time after it was formed. On the other hand, if uranium-235 had not been present in uranium-238 in the proportion of 0.7%, we could not have obtained atomic energy. God has invested uranium-235 with such a characteristic that it can be converted to nuclear power only when it is separated, and does not pose a danger in its natural matrix in uranium-238.

Many biological events could not take place, but for the presence of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. If this substance, which has a proportion of one ppm (parts per million), had been slightly more common, it would have constituted a lethal hazard. And if the sodium-24 isotope were present in mineral springs, taking a bath would be like being present at Hiroshima when they dropped the bomb. Although the main substance in mineral springs is sodium, its isotopes other than sodium-24 are predominant.

Indeed, we could never exhaust commentary on this verse if we were to fill volumes. I have therefore been content to offer only a short summary. Let us read and re-read it with due reverence and wonder:

‘We have given the produce of the earth in harmonious balance and proper proportion.’