Example Term Paper Topics for NSci 116 (Energy, Technology, and Society)
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This is only a sample. You may make up your own topic. Indeed, please do!

Many of these suggestions are technical, because that's what I know.  You
may also choose political, economic, or historical topics.  Whatever you
choose, substantiate your arguments with logic and evidence.  Avoid bias
and gratuitous opinion, and let the facts tell the story, not your
feelings.  Everyone has feelings, but "Facts are stubborn things" (Lenin).

- The Deregulation of Electric Utilities in California
- Air Pollution and its Effect on Health in the San Joaquin Valley
- The History of U.S. Energy Policy
- Oil and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
- Hybrid Gasoline/Electric Automobiles
- The German Army's Use of Ethanol and Synfuels in World War II
- Ethanol Automobile Fuel in Brazil
- Natural Gas as Automobile Fuel in Italy and New Zealand
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell Automobiles
- Superconductivity in Power Transmission and Energy Storage
- World Oil Reserves: When Will the Oil Run Out?
- World Natural Gas Reserves
- Oil and Gas Resources in the former Soviet Union
- The History and Future of Ecoterrorism
- The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (or any other major oil spill) 
- The Role of Apollo 8 and the 1969 Santa Barbara Offshore Oil Spill in
	Starting the Modern Environmental Movement 
- The Energy Implications of the Gulf War of 1991
- World Population Growth and its Implications
- The Oil Shocks of 1973 and 1979
- Synfuels
- Coal: Its Past and Future
- Where will Petrochemicals Come from When the Oil is Gone?
- The Economics of Recycling Technology
- Oil Shale Resources in the West: Worth the Price?
- Municipal Power Generation by Solar Energy
- Energy Storage Technology for Solar and Wind Energy
- Home Architecture for Passive Solar Heating
- Independent Living with Solar Energy
- How Real is Global Warming?  Documenting the Problem
- Climate Change from Global Warming
- The Environmental Problems of Solar Energy: Waste Heat, Land Use,
	Materials (e.g., the environmental problems of copper mining)
- Wind Energy, Its Development, and its Environmental Problems
- Hydroelectric Power and its Environmental Problems
- Tidal Energy and its Environmental Problems
- Hydroelectric Power and its Environmental and Safety Problems
- Geothermal Energy, its Feasibility, and its Pollution Problems
- Generation IV Nuclear Reactor Designs: Are They Inherently Safe?
- Nuclear Energy in France/Japan/Sweden/Israel/Iraq/Russia/other countries
- How Nuclear Energy Education Backfired in Taiwan
- Nuclear Waste Disposal: What the U.S. Proposes to Do
- Nuclear Waste Disposal: What France/Japan/Other Countries Propose to Do
- Nuclear Power Plants, Security, and Terrorism
- Nuclear Energy and Weapons Proliferation
- Current Progress in Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy
- Advanced Fusion Energy as a Recycling Tool
- Lesson plans on any of the above topics for K-6/middle/high school.

Paper titles and 100-to-250-word summaries are due Monday, November 24.
Papers are due on the last day of instruction, Wednesday, Dec 10.  Papers
must use 5 or more references, with no more than two of the five from the
web.  If you want an A, you should have substantially more than these five
references.  Be sure to explain any jargon (in other words, terms that
aren't in Webster's Dictionary) you use, whether technical or educational.

The papers and summaries must be typed, and be 1750-2200 words long.
For more detailed instructions on these papers, see the Writing Guide 
(http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/nsci116paper.html).