Dear Wanderers,

I have spent a decent part of my adult life following my wandering interests.  Mostly physics, but plenty of other things.  Maybe I would have accomplished more if I had focussed more, but I have been happy learning about “found” things.  This is my place to share them, as well as keeping a record.

The last few weeks were difficult and I have been barely able to keep up the weekly message to the community, but now I think I have time for the personal blog.  I hope to post a few times a week.  You can check-in either by coming to fisherfiles.com, subscribing here, or subscribing to the RSS feed.

Physics

Letter from Einstein – who arrived in the US in 1933 and, when Hilter came to power in Germany, decided not to return.  In 1946, he wrote a poignant observation of the treatment of African-Americans in the United State. Thanks to Dan Harlow.

Cosmic rays – are an old topic in astrophysics.  Despite their extensive study over more than 100 year, there are still many mysteries.  Recent AMS results have revealed some new mysteries that challenge at least what I thought was settled business.

Pandemic simulations – have become a cottage industry of physicists these days.  This video is about 23 minutes long a is a really good example of how you can use a video to explain a complicated system.

Aerosols – Matt Evans has been working on understanding how aerosols transmit the SARs-CoV-2 virus and has written a paper full of cool physics.

Los Endos

I am reading – “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker and it is filled with scary stuff.  I’m now getting my 8 hours, drinking less coffee, and no drink a few hours before.  No shit.  If you don’t believe me, read this Quanta article on sleep deprivation.

Peter