Nuclear Flash Fiction
In this project, we were to write a flash fiction story on historic events in the field of chemistry, or one involving chemistry-related elements. A flash fiction story is usually less than 1,000 words, and provides a brief snapshot of a moment in time.
My story revolved around the events of the "Three Mile Island" disaster in Middletown, Pennsylvania on March 28th of 1978. On this day, a nuclear reactor broke down, and caused a large release of radiation and harmful chemicals into the air. Fortunately, no one died during or following the explosion. The main character in my story was inspired by those of the emergency response teams that were dispatched to the site of the power plant. During this process, I learned a lot about the effects that radiation has on the environment, and how dangerous it can be. I also explored topics such as somatic and genetic damage, and the ways that they impact people and their well-being. It was important for me to note the differences between somatic and genetic damage over the course of the research stage, because the two types of conditions are not similar. Somatic damage affects the organism itself, which results in either illness or death, while genetic damage affects, well, genetic machinery. Finally, I looked at nuclear fission, and what that exactly meant. In its most technical form, nuclear fission is the separation of the nucleus, which is caused by energy splits and the release of pressure within an energy bubble. My research not only focused on the chemistry concepts I wanted to incorporate in my story, but on the events of the "Three Mile Island" disaster. I needed to understand the perspectives of those involved in the incident through factual evidence, and what happened when. Since my story was going to be told through the eyes of a member of the inspection team, I wanted to represent his identity and perspective in the most authentic light possible. I took into account the chronicle of actions and events that took place on the disastrous day, and then pinpointed one aspect of that timeline that I wanted to highlight in my story. Since it was only a flash fiction piece, I had to convey all of my thoughts and ideas in a matter of literary moments. The most engaging part of this project was being able to utilize my creativity. In many scenarios, students would be forced to read about a chemistry-related topic, and then write a structured essay or report about the knowledge they gained. (Don't get me wrong, this is not referring to a hands-on experiment, but rather tangible information that one would read about and then apply to writing in their own terms.) I really enjoyed being able to learn about a historic event in the field of chemistry, and then having the ability to use my imagination to explain what I discovered, Because of this format, I felt a sense of freedom and individualism that I would not have felt if I had written a traditional chemistry paper. The most challenging aspect of this project was trying to incorporate chemistry concepts in a fluid, sensible manner in my writing. It is easy to spew out a bunch of facts about chemistry, or statistics related to the research you did. However, it is very difficult to create a generic conversation between characters that somehow includes natural moments involving chemistry. I have to admit, this was a big obstacle that I had to overcome during the writing and editing process. However, I am very proud of the way I was able to pull through, and I managed to come out with a successful project. To your right, you will find my final story, along with the research notes I took. |
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