We are:

Sahvin Panichpong     [email protected]

Risa Foster           [email protected]

Stevany Lamphear      [email protected]

Brian Chen            [email protected]

One day Risa's roommate mentioned that anyone who takes Organic Chemistry has to be crazy and daring. So we thought that the name Molecule Maniacs would fit that description.

Our group consists of Stevany Lamphear, Risa Foster, Brian Chen, and Sahvin Panichpong. A few of us have known each other since taking Chem 32 together. We were also lab partners in Chem 32. The following semester we had met Brian Chen in Chem 33 and eventually all ended up here.

Things were slow at first since we were having problems getting everyone together. However, we ended up meeting at Risa's house for the first time to discuss possible topics. After throwing various ideas in the air which included: Seron gas, buckyballs, nuclear warfare, pharmaceuticals, and environmental issues, we finally narrowed our topic down to Nuclear Disasters. This was stemmed from Risa's previous research paper on the Chernobyl incident.

Our next meeting a few days later consisted of beginning our search for sites on Nuclear Disasters. We were successful in finding numerous sites relating to our topic. We kept track of some of these sites so that we could use them to refer back to.

In our final meeting, we starting putting the pieces of our project together. We decided to add a small touch to our page by creating an animated pentane molecule using the program "Infini-D v3.0"(In other words, we actually made the pentane molecule ourselves in case you're wondering.)

There are 400 nuclear plants in 25 countries that supply 17% of the world's electricity. These figures are likely to increase due to the decreasing popularity and supply of fossil fuels. Already, America's second largest source of electric power is nuclear energy behind the ubiquitous !alkane! coal. Here's more information about the role of nuclear energy in our society.

The Nuclear Energy site at U. of Oregon explains how the processes in a nuclear reactor produces electricity. There are many positive and negative aspects of nuclear reactors. Check out some of the major pros and cons in the ongoing debate over man-made nuclear energy. The possibility of a nuclear disaster is the most visible and terrifying deterrent.

The effects of a nuclear meltdown can remain in our environment for thousands of years. The horrific destructions and mutations because of the radiation hazards involved in the nuclear process suck. alot. No, really, they do. I'm not kidding man, look at this cow from the Three Mile Island "incident". Chernobyl is the worst nuclear disaster to ever occur, and the concurrent ramifications are still being discovered. This picture of the plant shows the aftermath of the meltdown. Another example of a major nuclear accident was the reactor at Three-Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. To summarize, clickety-click.

At first, some of us were hesitant about working together in a group but it turned out to be beneficial. The only problem we ran into was finding times that we could all meet since we are all members of MU's croquet team and had to go to Nationals this month; unfortunately Risa only got bronze after an accident in the Hoopfest '97 slam dunking contest. Working in this group helped us learn cooperation techniques, provided study partners for Chem problems, and helped build the foundations for what proved to be lifelong soulmates.