Millions of years ago, uranium was formed from the merging of blistering neutron stars. Heated earth waters carried this metal into ore deposits where it became highly concentrated. The given photograph shows a product of this, a small mineral of uraninite. Our specimen constantly emits alpha particles, a type of atomic level particle, uraninite's specific form of ionizing radiation. This same phenomena, at an elevated scale, can create energy to power cities. With the help of dry ice underneath and isopropyl alcohol soaked fabric above, we can visualize a wonder typically invisible to the human eye. If you look carefully through the mist of the evaporated dry ice at the bottom of the mineral, you can see the energized particles charging the alcohol molecules. This excitation of particles results in rays of energy leaving our ancient rock sample, as if the alpha particles are airplanes leaving jet streams through a cloudy sky.