Uranium in the History of Medicine

Abstract

The history of uranium is closely connected with the silver mining town Joachimsthal1 in the Erzgebirge on the border between Saxony and Bohemia (Figure 1). The town was founded in 1516 when few years earlier silver was discovered. Further settlings in the neighborhood, Freiberg (1168) and Schneeberg (1446) are also known by their silver discoveries. It was there in Joachimsthal that uranium was discovered but uranium industry went through many stages of prosperity and depression with different industrial products other than uranium till finally uranium became the most sought-after metal during World War II that started in Europe in 1939 [1].