Partially Coherent

While I was writing my  first article , I noticed that there were almost no models that describe how the radioactive fallout settles to the ground (or deposits, as they say). The models that I found were either extremely primitive or simply mathematical fittings to data, with next to none predictive power! The crudest model is that you take the radioactive concentration (Becquerel/cubic meter) and multiply it with the amount of rain (millimeters). I have no idea what motivated this (maybe that the dimensions work out to be correct?), and it's just as reliable as it sounds. The most advanced model I found was actually quite reliable in estimating deposition, but as it was just a mathematical fit to measured data, it did not offer any insight to the physics behind it. So, I started drafting a simple model to introduce in the first paper. I had a small notebook where I would scribble whatever I had come up with. The notebook filled up quickly and I realized that there was n...

I was doing a summer internship at the Finnish  Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority  a few years back, where I got the opportunity to try my hand at writing. It was very interesting work and the internship went by reaaally fast. Oh, and I was also in charge of monitoring the radiation levels in the air of northern Finland, while my supervisors were on summer vacation (yay). Thankfully, the radiation stayed at safe levels throughout the summer, although it would have been interesting to see what happens when they are elevated. I did get to see some action as well, since we hosted a drill with other authorities, the emergency services and the military. The setting was that there was an unknown source of radioactivity spotted in Northern Finland and fighter jets were sent to collect samples from the clouds. Our job was to determine what the cause was and what needs to be done to avoid further damages. It was partly exciting and partly dull, since I was assigned to spe...