bTim Koeth peered into the crumpled brown paper lunch bag inside was a surprisingly heavy black metal cube.b p He recognized the mysterious object instantly--he had one just like it sitting on his desk at home. It was uranium metal, taken from the nuclear reactor that Nazi scientists had tried--and failed--to build at the end of World War II. This unexpected gift, wrapped in a piece of paper inscribed with a few cryptic but crucial lines, would launch Koeth, a nuclear physicist and professor, and his colleague Miriam Hiebert, a cultural heritage scientist, on an odyssey to trace the tale of these cubes--two of the original 664 on which the Third Reich had pinned their nuclear ambitions. p Part treasure hunt, part historical narrative, iThe Uranium Clubi winds its way through the back doors of World War II and Manhattan Project histories to recount the contributions of the men and women at the forefront of the race for nuclear power. From Werner Heisenberg and Germany's nuclear program