Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

by James Gleick

  303 WE HAVE NO EXCUSE: Feynman 1957a, 212.

  304 BY THE FIRST OF THESE MEETINGS: Pais 1986, 461; Polkinghorne 1989, 20.

  304 WITHIN A FEW YEARS PARTICLE TABULATIONS: Polkinghorne 1989, 21.

  304 GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE BEEN INVADED: C. F. Powell, at a 1953 conference, quoted in Polkinghorne 1989, 48.

  305 ONE EXPERIMENTALIST, MARCEL SCHEIN: Crease and Mann 1986, 178.

  305 You have a different theory: F-W, 603–5.

  306 If a Caltech experimenter: Barry Barish, interview, Pasadena.

  307 HE THOUGHT PAIS WAS WRONG: Cell-Mann 1982, 399.

  307 AT FOURTEEN HE HAD BEEN DECLARED: Columbiana 1944 (Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School), 28; Bernstein 1987, 20.

  308 THE ONLY PERSON WHO WILL KNOW: Ralph Leighton, interview, Pasadena.

  308 IT WAS THE CLOSEST TO SUCCESS: Cell-Mann, interview.

  308 IT WAS HIS BROTHER: Gell-Mann 1989b, 3.

  309 WHEN WEISSKOPF ADVISED HIM: Gell-Mann, interview.

  309 FEYNMAN FELT A FLICKER OF ENVY: F-W, 670; SYJ, 223.

  309 GELL-MANN, IN CHICAGO, FELT EVEN MORE: “Jealousy was another reason … I resented the publicity being given to the scheme of Pais, which I was convinced was wrong!” Gell-Mann 1982, 399.

  310 THE EDITORS OF THE PHYSICAL REVIEW: Gell-Mann 1953; Gell-Mann 1982, 400.

  310 WHY SHOULD A BROAD-MINDED THEORIST: Quoted in Polkinghorne 1989, 49. Similarly, the historian ). L. Heilbron: “‘Strangeness,’ a word barely utterable in Romance languages and expressive of a surprise only briefly felt…. Does the new terminology express cynicism or disdain by particle theorists toward their own creations?” “An Historian’s Interest in Particle Physics,” in Brown et al. 1989, 53.

  310 THE WINTER FERMI DIED: Gell-Mann, interview.

  311 MOST OF HIS BODY WAS CREMATED: Thomas S. Harvey, telephone interview; William L. Laurence, “Key Clue Sought in Einstein Brain,” New York Times, 20 April 1955; Steven Levy, “My Search for Einstein’s Brain,” New Jersey Monthly, August 1978, 43.

  311 VARIOUS NINETEENTH-CENTURY RESEARCHERS: Could 1981.

  312 IS THERE A NEUROLOGICAL SUBSTRATE: Obler and Fein 1988, 6.

  313 ENLIGHTENED, PENETRATING, AND CAPACIOUS MINDS: Duff 1767, 5.

  313 RAMBLING AND VOLATILE POWER: Ibid., 9.

  313 IMAGINATION IS THAT FACULTY: Ibid., 6–7.

  314 IN POINT OF GENIUS: Gerard 1774, 13.

  314 A QUESTION OF VERY DIFFICULT SOLUTION: Ibid., 18.

  315 IT IS ONE OF THE HOPES: Quoted in Root-Bernstein 1989, 1.

  315 A PHYSICIST STUDYING QUANTUM FIELD THEORY: Coleman, interview.

  315 FROM GEOMETRY TO LOGARITHMS: Hood 1851, 10–11.

  316 THE ASTROPHYSICIST WILLY FOWLER: Thorne, interview; Fowler, interview conducted by Charles Weiner, 30 May 1974, AIP: “I just thought Feynman’s talking through his hat, what can he possibly mean, what can general relativity have to do with these objects?”

  316 THAT FEYNMAN HAD SIGNED: John S. Rigden, interview, New York.

  317 WHY DO I CALL HIM A MAGICIAN?: Quoted in Dyson 1979, 8–9.

  317 MAGICAL MUMBO-JUMBO: Dyson 1979, 8.

  318 BETWEEN THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MAN: Lombroso 1891, xiii.

  319 LET EUROPEAN ROMANTICS CELEBRATE: Currie 1974.

  319 I SPEAK WITHOUT EXAGGERATION: Quoted in Grartan 1933, 156.

  319 MR. EDISON IS NOT A WIZARD: Quoted in LaFollette 1990, 97.

  320 EDISON WAS NOT A WIZARD: Grartan 1933, 151.

  320 HONEST CRAFTSMEN: Dyson 1979, 9.

  321 HE WAS SEARCHING FOR GENERAL PRINCIPLES: Ibid., 62–63.

  321 SO WHAT IS THIS MIND OF OURS?: WDY, 220.

  322 KNOWING WHAT FERMI COULD DO: Zuckerman 1977.

  323 I THINK IF HE HAD NOT BEEN SO QUICK: Coleman, interview.

  324 THE WHOLE QUESTION OF IMAGINATION: Lectures, II-20–10.

  325 NOT JUST SOME HAPPY THOUGHTS: Ibid.

  325 OUR IMAGINATION IS STRETCHED: CPL, 127–28.

  325 WE KNOW SO VERY MUCH: Feynman to Welton, 10 February 1947, CIT

  326 THERE ARE SO VERY FEW EQUATIONS: Ibid.

  326 MAYBE THAT’S WHY YOUNG PEOPLE: Feynman 1965c.

  326 WELTON, TOO, WAS PERSUADED: Welton, interview: “I said, ‘Dick, think in retrospect what would have happened if I had taught you the Q.E.D. that I knew— you would have known too much, and you wouldn’t have been able to innovate as much,’ and he said, ‘You’re right.’”

  326 WOULD I HAD PHRASES: Attributed to Khakheperressenb, quoted in Lentricchia 1980, 318.

  326 THERE ARE NO LARGE PEOPLE: Quoted by Scott Spencer, “The Old Man and the Novel,” New York Times Magazine, 22 September 1991, 47.

  327 GIANTS HAVE NOT CEDED: Gould 1983, 224. 329 THOSE COUNTLESS FOOTNOTES: Merton 1961, 72.

  329 I ALWAYS FIND QUESTIONS LIKE THAT: Feynman to James T. Cushing, 21 October 1985, CIT.

  330 WEISSKOPF DECLARED AT ONE MEETING: Polkinghorne 1989, 61.

  331 FEYNMAN HIMSELF CONFESSED: Millard Susman, personal communication, 29 May 1989.

  331 EVERYTHING’S REALLY ALL RIGHT: Untitled videotape, n.d., recorded for the British Broadcasting Corporation; cf. Gardner 1969, 22–23.

  331 CHEMISTS CAN MAKE THEM WITH EITHER HANDEDNESS: Feynman 1965e, 98–100.

  332 GELL-MANN SPENT A LONG WEEKEND: Gell-Mann, interview.

  332 BY THE TIME THE 1956 ROCHESTER CONFERENCE: Pais 1986, 524.

  333 BE IT RECORDED HERE THAT ON THE TRAIN: Ibid., 525.

  333 AN EXPERIMENTER ASKED FEYNMAN WHAT ODDS: “I mention this story because I was prejudiced against thinking that parity wasn’t conserved, but I knew it might not be. In other words, I couldn’t bet one hundred to one, but just fifty to one.” F-W, 721.

  333 PURSUING THE OPEN-MIND APPROACH: Ballam et al. 1956, 27.

  333 SOME STRANGE SPACE-TIME: Ibid., 28.

  333 THE CHAIRMAN: Ibid.

  334 I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THE LORD: Quoted in Bernstein 1967, 59–60.

  334 WE ARE NO LONGER TRYING TO HANDLE SCREWS: Sheldon Penman, quoted in Gardner 1969, 244.

  334 AT THE 1957 ROCHESTER CONFERENCE: Polkinghorne 1989, 65.

  334 BUSY EXPLAINING THAT THEY PERSONALLY: Ibid., 64–65.

  335 HE REFUSED TO REFEREE PAPERS: “To me there’s an infinite amount of work involved…. I’m not built that way. I can’t think his way. I can’t follow and try to go through all these steps. If I want to worry about the problem, I read the paper to get the problem, and then maybe work it out some other way…. Now, to read and just check steps is— I can’t do.” F-W, 715.

  335 MR. BEARD IS VERY COURAGEOUS: Feynman to Theodore Caris, 5 December 1961, CIT.

  335 YOU’VE DONE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN,: F-W, 727–28; Joan Feynman.

  336 AS LEE POINTED OUT: In Ascoli et al. 1957.

  336 IN READING LEE AND YANG’S PREPRINT: F-W, 724.

  336 HE LIKED THE IDEA ENOUGH: F-W, 725–26; SYJ, 228.

  336 A TWO-COMPONENT EQUATION:

  336 SUPPOSE THAT HISTORICALLY: Feynman 1957b, 43.

  337 OF COURSE I CAN’T DO THAT: Ibid.

  337 MARSHAK AND SUDARSHAN MET WITH GELL-MANN: An unhappy tangle of priority concerns followed. Marshak and Sudarshan were concerned to point out that Gell-Mann had learned of their work in progress in July; Gell-Mann was concerned to point out that he had been thinking about V-A “for all these years.” Marshak and Sudarshan had missed the opportunity to speak at the Rochester meeting in April—when Feynman described his two-component Dirac equation—and forever after found themselves rehearsing their reasons for remaining silent. To their deep dismay, most physicists cited the Feynman-Gell-Mann paper, not the Marshak-Sudarshan paper (Sudarshan 1983, 486; Sudarshan and Marshak 1984, 15–20). They liked to quote a generous remark of Feynman’s long afterward: “We have a conventional theory of weak interactions invented by Marshak and Sudarshan, published by Feynman and Gell-Mann, and completed by Cabibbo….” Feynman 1974b.

  337 I FLEW OUT OF THE CHAIR: F-W, 729–30.

&n
bsp; 337 GELL-MANN, HOWEVER, DECIDED: Gell-Mann, interview.

  338 BEFORE THE TENSION BETWEEN THEM: Gell-Mann, Bacher, interviews.

  338 COLLEAGUES STRAINED TO OVERHEAR: Matthew Sands, interview, Santa Cruz, Calif.

  338 GELL-MANN SOMETIMES DISDAINED IT: Gell-Mann 1983b; Gell-Mann, interview: “He wrote his version using a two-component formalism, of which he was very proud. I disliked the approach: I found it clumsy and unnecessary. I added a lot of material to the paper, some good and some bad, but I didn’t succeed in changing the emphasis on the two-component formalism. That was sort of unfortunate.”

  338 ONE OF THE AUTHORS HAS ALWAYS: Feynman and Gell-Mann 1958a, 194.

  338 HAS A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF THEORETICAL: Ibid., 193.

  338 THERE WAS A MOMENT WHEN I KNEW: Edson 1967, 64.

  339 WE ARE WELL AWARE OF THE FRAGILITY: Feynman and Gell-Mann 1958b.

  339 IMPRESSING LISTENERS WITH THE BODY LANGUAGE: Polkinghorne 1989, 72.

  339 YOU SPEAK ENGLISH: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  340 FEYNMAN ARRIVED AT A PICNIC: Susman, personal communication.

  340 A NEW ERA IN HISTORY: “Red Moon over U.S.,” Time, 14 October 1957, 27.

  340 ALL THE MASTERY THAT IT IMPLIES: “The Red Conquest,” Newsweek, 14 October 1957, 38.

  340 WELL, LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT: Quoted in “The Feat That Shook the Earth,” Life, 21 October 1957, 25.

  340 OUR WAY OF LIFE IS DOOMED: Ibid., 23.

  340 CURLY-HAIRED AND HANDSOME: “Bright Spectrurn,” Time, 18 November 1957, 24.

  341 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP IS SLIPPING: “In Science,” Newsweek, 20 January 1958, 65.

  341 THEY WILL ADVANCE SO FAST: “Knowledge Is Power,” Time, 18 November 1957, 21.

  341 NO TIME FOR HYSTERIA: Reader’s Digest, December 1957, 117.

  341 A STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL LET CALTECH KNOW: Feynman: “… someone from the State Department asked that Murray’s name be on it also, in order to impress. This was very unfortunate altogether. I don’t mind Murray’s name on it, that’s not the point, but this kind of crap. They call up—so many Russians are going to talk about this thing, they have to have more Americans talking about something scientific … this stuff about propaganda mixing up with the science, you know.” F-W, 744.

  341 IT REMINDED HIM OF THE FLOPHOUSES: WDY, 63–65.

  341 SHE TOLD HIM SHE WAS MAKING HER WAY: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  342 I’VE DECIDED TO STAY HERE: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 13 October 1958, PERS.

  343 HE CONSULTED A LAWYER: Sands, interview.

  343 FEYNMAN CALCULATED FARES: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 1 November 1958, PERS.

  343 YOU’LL WRITE & TELL ME: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 1 December 1958, PERS.

  343 I’M IMPROVING, AM I NOT: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 2 January 1959, PERS.

  344 YOU DO NEED SOMEONE: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 14 January 1959, PERS. 344 SHE IS AN INTELLIGENT GIRL: Feynman to American Consulate General, Zurich, 22 January 1959, PERS.

  344 SHE HAD TO AVOID ENGELBERT: Gweneth Howarth to Feynman, 14 February 1959.

  344 FROM WHAT MORAL HIGH GROUND: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  345 BUT FEYNMAN’S ATTORNEYS ADVISED HIM: Samuel C. Klein to Robert F. Diekman, 22 September 1959, and Robert F. Diekman to Feynman, 30 September 1959, PERS.

  345 WELL, AT LAST: Feynman to Gweneth Howarth, 28 May 1959, PERS.

  345 SHE SURREPTITIOUSLY INTRODUCED COLORED SHIRTS: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  346 AT FIRST HE KEPT HER PRESENCE SECRET: Gweneth Feynman, Gell-Mann, interviews.

  346 SO THIS IS HOW WE’RE STARTING LIFE: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  346 MURRAY GELL-MANN, WHO HAD MARRIED: Gell-Mann 1989a, 50.

  346 AN IMAGE LODGED IN GELL-MANN’S MEMORY: Ibid.

  347 HELLO, MY SWEETHEART: Feynman to Gweneth Feynman, 11 October 1961, PERS.

  347 AGE IS, OF COURSE, A FEVER CHILL: E.g. Kragh 1989, 347n.

  348 TO CONVEY A SENSE OF HOW “DELICATELY": QED, 7.

  348 WE HAVE BEEN COMPUTING TERMS: Feynman 1961a, 17.

  348 NOTE THE CUNNING OF REASON AT WORK: Schweber, forthcoming.

  348 WE VERY MUCH NEED A GUIDING PRINCIPLE: Weinberg 1977a, 33.

  348 “DIPPY” AND “A SHELL GAME": QED, 128.

  349 THE ELECTRON DISTORTS THE LATTICE: Feynman 1955a; Feynman et al. 1962.

  349 HIS CALTECH SALARY: Salary records, Lee DuBridge papers, CIT.

  349 HE STARTED TELLING PEOPLE: Susman, personal communication.

  349 FEYNMAN TOLD HIMSELF THAT HE WOULD GO: F-W, 751.

  349 FEYNMAN BEGAN IN THE SUMMER: Notebook, “Biochemical Techniques,” CIT; F-W, 751.

  350 UNDERSTANDING WHEN A THING IS REALLY KNOWN: F-W, 753.

  350 HE FOCUSED ON A PARTICULAR MUTATION: Benzer 1962; Crick 1962; Crick 1966.

  350 FEYNMAN COMPARED FINDING: Susman, personal communication.

  350 FRIENDS OF HIS IN THE LABORATORY: Robert Sinsheimer to Feynman, n.d., “Dear Feyntron … ,” CIT; “Mutual Suppression of rII Mutants of Bacteriophage T4D,” draft by Robert Sinsheimer, CIT. F-W, 752: “I knew they were very interesting and unusual, but I didn’t write it up.” He did contribute to a group paper in Genetics, however: Edgar, Feynman, et al. 1961.

  351 THE SPECIALISTS HAD AN ADVANTAGE: Crick et al. 1961; Crick 1962.

  351 THE STORY OF THE GENETIC CODE: Crick 1966, 55–56.

  351 QUANTUM-MECHANICAL SMEARING OF SPACE-TIME: Gell-Mann 1989a, 53.

  352 THE GRAVITATIONAL FORCE IS WEAK: Alexander J. Glass, letter to Physics Today, May 1988, 136.

  352 I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY PLANS: Feynman to Weisskopf, 4 January to 11 February 1961, WHE.

  352 MAYBE GRAVITY IS A WAY: Ibid.

  352 A CONFERENCE ON GRAVITATION: Feynman 1963b.

  353 SINCE 1916 WE HAVE HAD A SLOW: Quoted in Schucking 1990, 486.

  353 THEY TEASED EACH OTHER: Feynman to Gweneth Feynman, n.d., in WDY, 90.

  353 WHAT HAVE YOU EVER DONE: Schucking 1990, 483.

  353 THE “WORK” IS ALWAYS: Feynman to Gweneth Feynman, n.d., in WDY, 91–92.

  354 THE REAL FOUNDATION OF QUANTUM MECHANICS: Gell-Mann 1989a, 54.

  354 THERE IS A DEVICE ON THE MARKET: Feynman 1960a, 22–24.

  355 HE ENVISIONED MACHINES THAT WOULD MAKE: The idea of ever-tinier servo-controlled robotic hands had been anticipated by the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, who called them Waldoes. Cf. Regis 1990, 142.

  355 HOW TO BUILD AN AUTOMOBILE: Popular Science Monthly, November 1960, 114.

  356 NOT UNTIL 1985 DID FEYNMAN HAVE TO PAY: Thomas H. Newman to Feynman, 30 January 1986, CIT.

  356 BY JUNE, WHEN HE HAD NOT HEARD: William McLellan, telephone interview; “McLellan Micromotor,” note, CIT.

  356 UH-OH: McLellan, interview.

  356 HE HAD NEGLECTED TO MAKE ANY ARRANGEMENTS: Feynman to McLellan, 15 November 1960.

  357 FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS (IN THE SENSE OF: Feynman 1960a, 22.

  357 WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IS REAL: Feynman to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, CIT.

  357 PITH BALLS AND INCLINED PLANES: F-W, 760.

  358 1. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT: Beyer and Williams 1957. Cf. Lindsay 1940, Bonner and Phillips 1957, and Mendenhall et al. 1950.

  358 A GENERATION-OLD TEXT BY ITS OWN LUMINARY: Millikan et al.

  358 SO, WHAT IS OUR OVER-ALL PICTURE: Lectures, I-1–2.

  359 IF WATER—WHICH IS NOTHING: Lectures, I-1–9.

  359 GUIDE TO THE PERPLEXED: F-W, 762.

  359 A TEAM OF CALTECH PHYSICS PROFESSORS: Sands, interview; D. Goodstein 1989, 74.

  360 PHYSICS BEFORE 1920: Lectures, I-2–3.

  360 NOT THE PROBLEM OF FINDING NEW: Lectures, I-3–9.

  360 IT IS THE ANALYSIS OF CIRCULATING: Ibid.

  360 WHAT WE REALLY CANNOT DO: Lectures, I-3–10.

  360 WELL, THE HOUR IS UP: F-W, 765.

  360 HE TIMED HIS DIAGRAMS: Sands, interview.

  361 IN THE GRADUAL INCREASE IN THE COMPLEXITY: Lectures, I-4–2
.

  362 THEY DEPEND UPON HOW: Lectures, I-17–2.

  362 EVEN PHYSICISTS FELT THEY WERE LEARNING: Stabler 1967, 48; Lectures, I-20–7.

  362 IT IS A WONDERFUL THING: Lectures, I-20–7.

  363 THE RATCHET AND PAWL WORKS: Lectures, I-46–9.

  363 AS THE MONTHS WENT ON: F-W, 766.

  363 I’VE SPOKEN TO SOME: D. Goodstein 1989, 74.

  363 IT IS ODD: CPL, 13.

  364 GIVE A HUMAN APPROACH: Tord Pramberg to Feynman, 15 November 1966, and Feynman to Tord Pramberg, 4 January 1966, CIT.

  364 WHEN YOU HAVE LEARNED: Feynman to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, CIT.

  364 WITH THIS QUESTION PHILOSOPHY BEGAN: Heidegger 1959, 20.

  365 ALL SATELLITES TRAVEL: CPL, 19.

  365 THAT IS THE SAME: Ibid., 33.

  365 EXACTLY THE SAME LAW: Ibid., 34.

  365 MEANWHILE, WHY DOES AN OBJECT: Ibid., 19.

  366 SCIENCE REPUDIATES PHILOSOPHY: Quoted in Ziman 1978, 1.

  366 NONE OF THE ENTITIES THAT APPEAR: Park 1988, xx.

  366 LIKE TOURISTS MOVING IN: CPL, 173.

  366 QUESTIONS ABOUT A THEORY: Slater, “Electrodynamics of Ponderable Bodies,” Journal of the Franklin institute 225 (1938):277. Quoted by Schweber, forthcoming.

  366 AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE LAW: CPL, 169.

  367 AFTERWARD, MURRAY GELL-MANN “COUNTERED”: SYJ, 290.

  367 THEY COUNTED A CERTAIN NUMBER: CPL, 169.

  367 “YES,” SAYS THE ASTRONOMER: Ibid., 170.

  368 TO DYSON’S ASTONISHMENT: Dyson to his parents, October 1948.

  368 OH, NO, IT’S NOT SERIOUS: Dyson, interview; Dyson 1990.

  368 HIS MOTIVATION WAS TO DISCOVER: Dyson 1990, 210.

  368 DIFFERENT IDEAS FOR GUESSING: CPL, 168.

  369 TO GET SOMETHING THAT WOULD PRODUCE: Ibid., 169.

  369 WHAT CAN YOU EXPLAIN: Stephen Wolfram, telephone interview.

  369 IF YOU GET HOLD OF TWO MAGNETS: Untitled videotape, n.d., recorded for the British Broadcasting Corporation.

  371 I THINK THAT FOR SCIENTIFIC: Quine 1987, 109. 371 THE POST-SCHOLASTIC ERA: Ziman 1992.

  371 THE SCIENTIST HAS A LOT OF EXPERIENCE: Feynman 1955c, 14.

  372 GREAT VALUE OF A SATISFACTORY PHILOSOPHY: Notes, “The Uncertainty of Science,” PERS.

  372 THE KIND OF A PERSONAL GOD: Dan L. Thrapp, “Science, Religion Conflict Traced,” Los Angeles Times, 30 June 1956. Cf. Feynman 1956a.