What next?

I studied physics at university many, many years ago and have been interested in it - qualitatively (my maths was not a strength!) - ever since.  I have devoured articles and books about quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, thermodynamics and all manner of other branches of physics, but until a couple of weeks ago, one rather key fact had somehow completely escaped my attention.  I must have been asleep in the particular nuclear physics lecture in which this was announced all those years ago! The neutron, in free space, is unstable! The neutron - the electrically neutral, beige particle that helps build the nuclei of all but one of the elements that make up the natural world, the one component of an atom that doesn't respond to the strong electromagnetic force.  Bound up in most nuclei with other protons and neutrons, it will remain predictably stable, closely packed up against its near neighbours.  Set it free from the nucleus and it has a half life of around t...

As lockdown drags on, at least the days lengthen and the sun, rising earlier and setting later, now has the strength to warm as it climbs imperceptibly higher each day.  Through a rain-sodden January and a cold and snow-dusted February, I have taken pleasure from watching nature gently start to uncurl in preparation for spring.  The chance to be out on foot locally every morning watching, listening and learning about all life on my own doorstep in this metropolitan edge-land by the river, rather than on an overcrowded and infected commuter train has been an unexpected blessing. Most obvious has been the bird life.  Every walk by the river brings encounters with the same birds - maybe too easily taken for granted.  The swans, beautifully majestic and white with their wings puffed out like spinnakers, sailing on the water.  But, on a snowy day, seen close up next to the snow, suddenly they are no longer white at all, but a decidedly creamy off-white.  There a...

I thought I would start by listing some books I have really enjoyed reading recently.  I have been going through a phase of reading books about the British countryside and wildlife: as follows: Claxton by Mark Cocker : the wonderful diary of the countryside and its plants, animals, weather, in a small village in Norfolk.  A relaxing and often joyful read, highly evocative of the landscape and big skies that dominate this part of the world. The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane : a cross between diary, literature review and in some cases what feels like poetry, MacFarlane takes a deep look at pathways - on land and at sea, mostly in the UK, but also wider afield.  He describes his personal journeys through them, carefully crafting descriptions of place, people, feelings and moods and the meaning of what he is experiencing and lacing it through with literary flashbacks and comparisons to writers whose work has given him joy, inspiration or just food for thought.  This ...