The text of your paper should be between 1400 - 2000 words. Visual elements (diagram and graph) are also required. See the detailed information below.

Proposal for term paper

• Upload your proposal to Canvas by Friday February 8, 2019 (5 pm)

Completed term paper

• Upload to Canvas by Monday March 11, 2019 (by end of the day, i.e. before 11:59pm)

You can choose between scientific writing for a magazine, and scientific writing for political advocacy. Some topics may fit the magazine option better, and other topics may fit the political option better. Pick the option that best suits your interest. Read the options carefully to get guidance on picking an appropriate topic.

• Scientific writing for a magazine
• Scientific writing for political advocacy

Check that your paper will satisfy the items in the grading rubric.

For additional advice about the visual components of your term paper, follow these links:

• Advice about schematics (conceptual diagrams)
• Advice about graphs, see Day 21 Notes.

The physics of…

• Elon Musk's proposal for “hyperloop” high speed rail
• Wave energy on the Oregon coast.
• Freeman Dyson's idea for nuclear-blast-powered space travel (project Orion)
• Why some gas molecules are 100 times “more potent” as greenhouse gases
• Third-generation nuclear reactors that are “fail-safe”, for example, the reactors made by NuScale power in Corvallis.
• Using a particle accelerator to drive specific nuclear reactions, thereby solving many of the issues with conventional nuclear reactors, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_amplifier
• Creative solutions to the nuclear waste storage conundrum
• Thorium based nuclear power
• A number of private companies are working on their own fusion reactors, using innovative technology (Physics Today 2018)
• Extracting power from temperature differences in the ocean (Scientific American, January 1987)
• Can medical x-rays be performed with less radiation exposure (are we close to the fundamental limit)?
• Passive cooling below ambient air temperature under direct sunlight (Nature 2014)
• How much time, energy and money does it take to capture 1 ton of carbon dioxide from the air (Nature 2018, Joule 2018)
• Space elevators - why we care and what is needed to build one, Physic World 2011, Nature Nano 2017, American Journal of Physics
• Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion
• Oil pipelines - for example, how much energy (approximately) does it take to pump oil (and keep it warm) along the 800 mile Alaska pipeline?
• Ion-drive aircraft
• Intercontinental quantum encryption
• Comparing the efficiency of photovoltaics to photosynthesis, article in Science magazine.
• Geothermal heat flow in Oregon
• Lasers with continuous-wave output power greater than 10 kW might be possible?
• The physics of baking a perfect pizza

• Winter 2019
• Winter 2018