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Here are some suggested topics for term papers. These are here to give you ideas, and you don't have to choose one of these topics. I have broken them into two categories: history of physics and current physics topics.
History of Physics Topics
 | the Michelson-Morley experiment |
| early tests of relativity |
| Millikan's oil-drop experiment |
| the discovery of the electron |
| Rutherford's nuclear scattering experiments |
| the discovery of the neutron |
| early attempts to understand the photoelectric effect |
| early attempts to overcome "ultraviolet catastrophe" |
| Roentgen's early work with x-rays |
| Sommerfeld's relativistic extensions to Bohr theory |
| the first maser or laser |
| London's connection between superfluidity and Bose condensation |
| the discovery of the transistor |
| the discovery of fission |
Current Physics Topics
| gravity waves |
| neutrino mass and neutrino oscillations |
| atom lasers |
| atom interferometry |
| dark matter |
| Bose-Einstein Condensation |
| Fermi degeneracy |
| world's most accurate clock |
| evidence for antimatter cloud just outside Milky Way |
| physics size limits to electronic circuit elements |
| prospects for commercial fusion reactors |
| x-ray lasers |
| proton lifetime |
| quantum computing |
| superconductivity |
| "Schrodinger cat" experiments |
| Feshbach resonances |
| modern tests of relativity |
| parity violation |
| the search for a permanent electron dipole moment |
| quantum erasers |
| the search for spin forces |
You may also find a topic that interests you by looking at recent copies of Physics Today and by browsing through http://focus.aps.org/