Chomping on uranium

To a chemist’s eye, uranium has always looked dull. Not anymore.

PIERCED PAC-MAN. A molecule clamps onto a uranium oxide (green and red in this artist’s impression), and hand-wrings it to react with another molecule. Arnold

Natural uranium mostly occurs as an oxide. In water, the oxide readily dissolves in the form of a uranyl ion—a positively charged molecule made of one uranium and two oxygen atoms.