Abstract
This paper is a biography of Marie Curie's life, as well as her work and impact in the fields of physics and chemistry. It also pays particular notice to radioactivity. The paper is based on the strong theme that "nothing in life is to be feared, only understood," a quote attributed to Marie Curie herself.

From the Paper
"Marie's childhood was not a perfect one by any means. She was the fifth child in her family, and soon after she was born, both of her parents lost their jobs as teachers. Despite losing their jobs, Marie's parents still managed to instill into their daughter the value of education, and had taught her to read by age 4. Her parents also instilled in Marie a sense of duty. This, combined with the family's economic circumstances lead Marie to lead "the most Spartan of lives." ["Marie Curie", Minist're des Affaires "trang'res de la R'publique Francaise, 1.] Marie's childhood continued to be harsh, as she had to deal with the deaths of both her mother, and one of her sisters by age 11. This only served to create a sense of "agnosticism that would later bolster her faith in science," ["Marie Curie," Minist're des Affaires "trang'res de la R'publique Francaise, 1.] however. Despite the many setbacks that seemed to litter her childhood, Marie persevered. In spite of the long hours she spent helping cook meals for the boarders that her family had taken in, at age 15, Marie won a medal for excellence at her high school, where the examinations where administered in Russian. She dreamed of someday becoming a scientist, something that was not socially-acceptable for women to do in Poland in the 1880's."

Tags:polonium, radioactivity, radium

Abstract
The paper defines types of ballistics and goes into depth on terminal ballistics, velocity, and one-stop shots. The author discusses the effects and actions of the projectile upon impact of a target specifically the human body. What happens when a bullet strikes human flesh? Dismisses several theories in the field using FBI research.

From the Paper
"The study of the firing of projectiles, their flight and how they strike a target is called ballistics. There are several categories of ballistics including internal ballistics, external or exterior ballistics and terminal ballistics. Internal ballistics is concerned with the behavior of the bullet or projectile from the moment it is fired until it leaves the gun barrel. Exterior ballistics deals with the flight of a projectile after it leaves the barrel. One major effect of the bullet's flight is the pull of gravity, which causes the bullet to immediately drop after leaving the barrel and fly on a parabolic path. Terminal ballistics however, is concerned with when the bullet hits a target and the effects produced by that bullet."

Tags:criminalistics, forensic, range, science, velocity, criminal, justice

Abstract
This is a detailed study describing the progression of the Manhattan Project and the invention of the atomic bomb. The "Manhattan Project" was a code name given to the efforts and collaboration of many scientists to build the first atom bomb. The author sees two major challenges that faced the team of highly capable scientists. The first was the actual production of the atom bomb. This involved actually making innovative discoveries that would revolutionize war and change man's idea of war for good. The second involved all of the ethical debates on whether or not the bomb should have actually been used in warfare. The author concludes that the building of the atomic bomb proved to be the most pivotal advance seen by science up until the early twentieth century.

From the Paper
"We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon of the Mount...The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living..." stated General Omar N. Bradley, Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1948, voicing the opinion, shared by many of the time, towards the building of the atomic bomb. The "Manhattan Project" was a code name given to the efforts and collaboration of many scientists to build the first atom bomb. There were two major challenges that faced the team of highly capable scientists. The first was the actual production of the atom bomb. This involved actually making innovative discoveries that would revolutionize war and change man's idea of war for good. The second involved all of the ethical debates on whether or not the bomb should have actually been used in warfare. The project lasted from 1942-1946 and cost approximately 1.8 billion dollars, which is comparable to 20 billion dollars today. The building of the atomic bomb proved to be the most pivotal advance seen by science up until the early twentieth century."

Tags:Manhattan, Project, World, War, II, atomic, bomb, invention

From the Paper
"Background
The Big Bang Theory is an explanation for the beginning of the universe. The universe today is expanding, as can be seen in the way all matter is moving outward. Tracing this movement back through time takes all matter to a single point, leading to the view that at one time all matter was concentrated in a singularity which for some unknown reason exploded, throwing all material now seen in the universe outward from that central point. There are various corollaries to this theory, such as the issue of whether the expanding universe will continue to expand forever or will eventually reach an end point and fall back on itself. There are also various consequences of the Big Bang which can be used to determine if the theory has validity. A number of researchers have examined aspects of the Big Bang theory and developed ideas..."

Abstract
This paper discusses what makes Albert Einstein a hero. The writer claims that according to the definitions in Webster's Dictionary, Einstein was indeed a hero of the world community. The paper gives examples from the life and work of Albert Einstein to show that, unlike heroes of legend, Einstein was a modern hero.

From the Paper
"Because of the anti-semitism he experienced and his dislike of the German military character, Einstein renounced his German citizenship in 1896 and was granted Swiss citizenship in 1901. He attended college in Zurich graduating in 1900 as a teacher of mathematics. In 1905 he earned a doctorate from the University of Zurich. It was also in 1905 that he wrote his revolutionary paper on the special theory of relativity. By 1909 he was recognized as a leading scientific thinker. In 1914 he returned to Germany to take up a prestigious research post. Einstein received the Nobel Prize in 1921 not for his theory of relativity but for his work on the photoelectric effect. He accepted a post at Princeton University and came to the United States in 1932, becoming a citizen in 1940 (Mathematicians/Einstein)."

Tags:mathematics, legend, science, research, Nobel

Abstract
This paper is an examination of nuclear energy as a power source, focusing on the environmental impacts associated with producing and using the fuel. The history of the development of nuclear technology is briefly discussed. Then some of the positive attributes associated with nuclear power are given, as an argument for having pursued this technology despite its many uncertainties and pitfalls. Next, the many drawbacks commonly associated with nuclear power are presented, including the problem of radioactive waste. The paper concludes with a short look into what the U.S. government is doing to address the situation created by the nuclear industry and the areas in which it falls short of solving the problems at hand.

From the Paper
"Safety concerns have rightly plagued the nuclear industry since its inception. On one front, there is the threat of nuclear proliferation, which has already become a reality with feuding countries like India and Pakistan, both possessing nuclear capabilities. This poses a major threat to the global population as well as the global environment. If even one of these weapons were to be detonated, the immediate impact on human and other biological life would be devastating. But the long term effects to the ecosystem are assumed to be equally as grave and ruinous."

Tags:atoms, reactor, uranium, Three, Mile, Island, Chernobyl

Abstract
This paper covers the following topics: what are supernovae; the history of the supernovae; supernovae in our Galaxy: how they are formed; nomenclature; how they affect us.

From the Paper
" A supernova is the cataclysmic explosion of a big mass star, which releases a huge quantity of light instantaneously, occurring approximately twice per century. Astronomers have been observing supernovae in our skies since the times of Christian Huygens, Simon Marius, Messier, Brache and Kepler. Fritz Zwicky was the first to use the term supernova to describe lights that were much brighter than any other star or planetary body visible in the sky. "

Tags:dwarves, magnetic, remnants, solar, wind

Abstract
This paper describes in depth test results and discoveries on black holes and whether or not they do exist. Special emphasis is placed on a discussion of Cygnus X-1.

From the Paper
"The only ways that we can detect black holes are to see the bending of light, or to examine the waves that they put off. The first thing discovered was a X-ray source in the constellation of Cygnus. This was then called Cygnus X-1 for its first X-ray source. No one knew for sure where this was coming from because X-ray telescopes cannot give that precise of a location. Later, in the spring of 1972 a new unexplained radio source was found in the same general area as Cygnus X-1. They identified this as an optical star known only by its classification number HDE226868. While we were finding this, the X-ray source for Cygnus X-1 showed up once again. They examined the data between these two objects, and made the conclusion that they were related. Most likely as a binary pair, with the star, and the unknown object, Cygnus X-1, orbiting around each other (DeGennaro). A binary pair is a pair of stars that orbit around each other, in this case one is a black hole, and the star orbits around it. As it orbits the immense gravity from the black hole strips gas from the normal star. As it falls it is moving at such a speed that the friction causes it to heat up to several million degrees, and this heat then causes the x-rays (McClintock)."

Tags:cygnus, event, horizon, physics, star

Abstract
The paper defines the term 'aurora' and explains what causes these luminous arcs and swirls of light to appear at different times during the year. It explains the difference between the auroras of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and the effect that the sun, in the form of solar wind, has on auroras.

From the Paper
"One of the reasons that the auroras seem so mysterious to us is that they are a product of magnetism, which is a force that most of us are at least generally familiar with but one that is also, of course, invisible. Because both magnetism and the plasma field around the earth (which is simply a cluster or layer of charged particles) are invisible, we cannot see the physical underpinnings of the auroras, making them seem highly mysterious to us."

Tags:borealis, australis, astronomer, magnetic, poles, hydrogen

From the Paper
" One of the foremost theoretical physicists, of our time, is Stephen W. Hawking. He states, in the acknowledgments of his book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, that the purpose of this book is to describe the "basic ideas about the origin and the fate of the universe . . . in a form that people without a scientific education can understand" (vi). Stephen Hawking does not give a clear thesis statement for this book. An implied thesis of this book would be that humans have always sought to understand how the universe was created and works; with continued development of the Grand Unified Theory (GUT), complete understanding begins to be possible. He poses the age old questions of: "Where did the universe come from, and where is it going? Did the universe have a beginning . . . what happened before then?" (1). Breakthroughs in physics and.."