We began looking for Web sites to help one of the children explain nuclear fission and fusion for homework, but we got sidetracked in the hoopla over California's energy crisis.
This site designed for classroom use describes the basics of nuclear science. It also provides a list of simple experiments to explain, among other scary things, that many household items such as pottery glaze, glass crystal and smoke detectors are radioactive.
sciviz.colum.edu/gallery/archive/si/main.html
A bunch of short videos on this site explain how fission splits atoms while fusion mashes them together. Both fission and fusion release energy, which can either light bulbs or blow up the world.
www.consumerenergycenter.org/flex/index.html
On to California, where keeping the bulbs lit was the problem of the day. The tips offered here for home energy conservation are brought by the embattled California Energy Commission, which is not above recommending that you keep a flashlight handy.
www.scientificamerican.com/askexpert/physics/physics6.html
Twelve years ago this month, a couple of scientists in Utah claimed they had evidence of a fusion reaction taking place in water at room temperature so-called cold fusion.
Play a game called Crisis that makes you the head of a country in the grip of an energy shortage.
www.alice.pangea.ca/~het/catastrophes.html
Here is a site that lumps an energy crisis with end-of-the-world scenarios including asteroid impacts and global disease. Take your pick and hunker down.
enews.lbl.gov/ScienceArticles/Archive/net-energy-studies.html
Is the Internet sapping the nation of electrical energy? It has been suggested. This report, however, refutes the notion.
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