Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

by James Gleick

  372 IT DOESN’T SEEM TO ME: Interview for “Viewpoint,” with Bill Stout, transcript, CIT. Feynman complained to the station: “It was said at one time that my views might antagonize people…. I consider your refusal to utilize the program recorded with me as a direct censorship of the expression of my views.” Feynman to Bill Whitley, 14 May 1959, CIT.

  372 THE GROUND OF ALL THAT IS: Polkinghorne 1990.

  373 POETS SAY SCIENCE TAKES AWAY: Lectures, I-3–6 n.

  373 I HAVE ARGUED FLYING SAUCERS: Feynman 1963c, 62.

  373 IF IT’S NOT A MIRACLE: Ibid., 64.

  374 ORANGE BALLS OF LIGHT: Ibid., 61.

  374 I HAD THE MOST REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE: Ibid., 66.

  374 I WAS UPSTAIRS TYPEWRITING: Ibid.

  375 A DESK-THUMPING, FOOT-STAMPING SHOUT: Fine 1991, 271.

  375 THE GREAT LESSON OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY: Ibid., 274.

  376 THE NOBEL COMMITTEE HAS AWARDED: “Nobel Prize for Einstein,” New York Times, 10 November 1922, 4.

  376 AS THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF HONORS: Zuckerman 1977, 11.

  377 EACH FALL, AS THE ANNOUNCEMENT NEARED: “I always thought—I mean, I thought that there was a possibility that I might get a Nobel prize, because 1 thought somebody might think the work in helium, or maybe the beta decay, or even the electrodynamics might be something for the Nobel prize…. Each year when the Nobel prize talking comes around, of course you half think, maybe it’s possible.” F-W, 800–801.

  378 THE WESTERN UNION “TELEFAX": Erik Rundberg to Feynman, 21 October 1965, PERS.

  378 THE FIRST CALL HAD COME: F-W, 801; “Dr. Richard Feynman Nobel Laureate!” California Tech, 22 October 1965, 1.

  378 WILL YOU PLEASE TELL US: F-W, 804.

  378 WHAT APPLICATIONS DOES THIS PAPER: “Dr. Richard Feynman Nobel Laureate!” 378 LISTEN, BUDDY, IF I COULD TELL YOU: F-W, 804.

  378 JULIAN SCHWINGER CALLED: Schwinger, interview.

  378 I THOUGHT YOU WOULD BE HAPPY: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, n.d., PERS.

  379 [FEYNMAN:] CONGRATULATIONS: “Dr. Richard Feynman Nobel Laureate!” 379 THERE WERE CABLES FROM SHIPBOARD: F-W, 806.

  379 HE PRACTICED JUMPING BACKWARD: Ibid., 808–9.

  380 FEYNMAN REALIZED THAT HE HAD NEVER READ: Ibid., 812.

  380 HE BELIEVED THAT HISTORIANS: Feynman 1965a.

  380 WE HAVE A HABIT IN WRITING: Ibid.

  380 AS I WAS STUPID: Ibid.

  381 THE CHANCE IS HIGH: Feynman 1965c.

  381 I DISCOVERED A GREAT DIFFICULTY: Ibid.

  382 THE ODDS THAT YOUR THEORY: Feynman 1965a.

  382 DR. CRICK THANKS YOU: Quoted in Zuckerman 1977, 224.

  383 MR. FEYNMAN WILL PAY THE SUM: Giuseppe Cocconi to Victor F. Weisskopf, 2 February 1976, CIT

  383 HE BEGAN BY SCRIBBLING A NOTE: Feynman to B. L. Kropp, 9 November 1960, CIT.

  383 MY DESIRE TO RESIGN: Feynman to Detlev W. Bronk, 10 August 1961. CIT.

  384 THANK YOU FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS: Detlev W. Bronk to Feynman, 26 October 1961, CIT.

  384 SUPPOSE THAT WE TRULY: Philip Handler to Feynman, 25 June 1969, CIT.

  384 I HAVE YOUR SOMEWHAT CRYPTIC NOTE: Philip Handler to Feynman, 31 July 1969, CIT.

  384 HE TURNED DOWN HONORARY DEGREES: George W. Beadle to Feynman, 4 January 1967, and William J. McGill to Feynman, 16 February 1976, CIT.

  384 INTRODUCE A DRAFT OF FRESH AIR: Martin Mann to Feynman, 13 September 1962, and reply, CIT.

  384 HE REFUSED TO SIGN PETITIONS: E.g., Feynman to Margaret Gardiner, 15 May 1967, CIT.

  385 THE COMMENT YOU SENT BACK WITH OUR QUESTIONNAIRE: R. Hobart Ellis, Jr., to Feynman, 25 August 1966, and reply, CIT.

  385 FEYNMAN HID BEHIND HER DOOR: Helen Tuck, interview, Pasadena.

  385 A DISCRETIONARY KITTY: Goldberger, interview.

  386 IT MUST HAVE BEEN VERY DIFFICULT: Holton, interview.

  386 HANS BETHE TURNED SIXTY: R. E. Marshak to Feynman, 11 May 1965, and reply, CIT.

  386 DON’T LET ANYBODY CRITICIZE: Feynman to James D. Watson, 10 February 1967, CIT.

  387 IT IS OF COURSE A YANG-MILLS THEORY: Gell-Mann 1983a, 3.

  387 BY THE WAY, SOME PEOPLE: Ibid.

  388 THE POINT WAS HARDLY LOST: As Gell-Mann said at a memorial service for Feynman in 1989: “Everybody knows that Richard didn’t think one should be able to tell the difference between one bird and another…. He tried to show in yet another way that he could stand out from the herd—like not being a birdwatcher.” Talk at Feynman memorial, San Francisco, 18 January 1989.

  388 SITS CALMLY BEHIND HIS DESK: Riordan 1987, 192.

  389 MURRAY’S MASK WAS A MAN: Coleman, interview.

  390 ZWEIG, FAR MORE VULNERABLE: Zweig 1981.

  390 THEIR PALPITANT PIPING, CHIRRUP: Quoted in Crease and Mann 1986, 185.

  391 THE CONCRETE QUARK MODEL: Zweig, interview.

  391 IT IS FUN TO SPECULATE ABOUT THE WAY QUARKS: Gell-Mann 1964.

  391 I ALWAYS CONSIDERED THAT TO BE A CODED MESSAGE: Polkinghome 1989, 110.

  391 FOR GELL-MANN THIS BECAME: “People have deliberately misunderstood this for twenty-seven years.” Gell-Mann, interview.

  391 I’VE ALWAYS TAKEN AN ATTITUDE: F-W, II-26.

  391 AT FIRST HIS SYLLABUS CONTAINED: Zweig, interview; F-W, II-15.

  392 A SINGLE BUBBLE CHAMBER: Traweek 1988, 52–53.

  392 LIKE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A POCKET WATCH: Quoted in Riordan 1987, 151–52.

  392 THE PHYSICISTS WHO WOULD GATHER: Riordan 1987, 149.

  393 HE ISOLATED A REMARKABLE REGULARITY: Bjorken 1989, 57; Bjorken, telephone interview.

  393 OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY: “Each of the hypothetical point-like constituents of the nucleon that were invoked by R. P. Feynman to explain the way the nucleon inelastically scatters electrons of very high energy.” A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, 279.

  394 QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS HAD ITS PARTONS: Feynman 1969b, 241.

  394 HE CHOSE NOT TO DECIDE: Feynman to Michael Riordan, 26 February 1986, CIT.

  394 WHEN FEYNMAN DIAGRAMS ARRIVED: Bjorken 1989, 56.

  394 FEYNMAN TOOK ON A PROJECT IN 1970: Feynman et al. 1971.

  395 CONVERTED INTO A QUARKERIAN: F-W, II-47.

  395 A QUARK PICTURE MAY ULTIMATELY PERVADE: Feynman et al. 1971, 2727.

  395 HE DISLIKED THE FANFARE: “These things were quarks and antiquarks (and sometimes gluons), but he didn’t want to call them by their names. At first, he wasn’t sure that that’s what they were, but as time went on it became clearer, and it annoyed me that he still didn’t acknowledge that he was talking about quarks. Eventually, some authors began to speak of ‘quark partons,’ but as if they were somehow different from ordinary current quarks.

  “The so-called parton model was an approximate description of quarks and gluons that could apply in the appropriate high-energy limits if the interaction of the particles became weak at short distances (as turned out to be the case in quantum chromodynamics). Dick painted a naïve picture, which was taken not just as an approximation to an unknown theory, but as a kind of revealed truth.

  “Physicists all over the world learned the ‘parton’ story, memorized it, and immediately began to use it to interpret experiments. In other words Dick has oversimplified the picture so that it could be used by everybody.” Gell-Mann, personal communication.

  395 WE HAVE BUILT A VERY TALL HOUSE OF CARDS: Feynman 1972c.

  395 I’M A LITTLE BIT FRUSTRATED: F-W, II-86.

  396 QUIETLY NOMINATED GELL-MANN AND ZWEIG: They never knew it. B. Wagel to Feynman, 26 January 1977, CIT. Gell-Mann, Zweig, interviews.

  396 JEE-JEE-JEE-JU-JU. JEE-JEE-JEE-JU-JU: F-L.

  396 IT TOOK YEARS FOR FEYNMAN’S CHILDREN: Michelle Feynman, Carl Feynman, Gweneth Feynman, interviews.

  397 RICHARD, I’M COLD: Leighton, interview.

  397 I COULD HAVE KILLED HIM: Feynman to Sheila Sorenson, 21 October 1974, CIT. 397 TRUMPET PLAYING—SOCIAL WORKER—ZYGOPHALATELIST: Feynman to Carl Feynman, 18 February 1980, PERS.

  397 AFTER MUC
H EFFORT AT UNDERSTANDING: Ibid.

  398 WHAT MAKES IT MOVE: Feynman 1966a.

  398 TO TELL A FIRST-GRADER: Ibid., 14.

  398 YOU SAY, “WITHOUT USING": Ibid., 15.

  398 SHOE LEATHER WEARS OUT: Ibid., 16.

  398 FEYNMAN TAUGHT THIRTY-FOUR: D. Goodstein 1989, 73.

  399 I COULDN’T REDUCE IT: Ibid. 75.

  399 IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE USE OF WORDS: Feynman 1964a, 16.

  400 I DOUBT THAT ANY CHILD: Ibid., 3.

  401 MICHELLE LEARNED THAT HE HAD A THOUSAND: Michelle Feynman, interview.

  401 OH YES, WE DO: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  401 TRAVELING IN THE SWISS ALPS: Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  402 FEYNMAN’S TUMOR: C. M. Haskell, interview, Los Angeles.

  402 FIVE-YEAR SURVIVAL RATES: Sheldon C. Binder, Bertram Katz, and Barry Sheridan, “Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma,” Annals of Surgery, March 1978, 260.

  402 YOU ARE OLD, FATHER FEYNMAN: “Father Feynman,” n.d., CIT.

  402 WITH A POSTDOCTORAL STUDENT: Feynman et al. 1977; Field and Feynman 1977; Field and Feynman 1978.

  403 FEYNMAN DID NOT REALIZE THAT FIELD: Richard Field, telephone interview.

  403 I DON’T GET ANY PHYSICS: Victor F. Weisskopf to Feynman, 23 March 1979, CIT.

  403 QCD FIELD THEORY WITH SIX FLAVORS: “Qualitative Behavior,” typescript for Feynman 1981, CIT.

  404 VASCULAR INCIDENT: In Chang Kim, interview, Pasadena.

  404 FEYNMAN NEEDED SEVENTY-EIGHT PINTS: Haskell, interview. Gweneth Feynman, interview.

  404 IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO TALK: Cvitanović, interview.

  404 MY WIFE: Douglas R. Hofstadter, telephone interview.

  405 I HAVE NOT ACCOMPLISHED ANYTHING: Feynman to Robert B. Leighton, 10 June 1974, CIT.

  405 WHAT THE HELL IS FEYNMAN INVITED FOR: Feynman to Sidney Coleman, 13 August 1976, CIT.

  405 ANOTHER PIECE OF EVIDENCE: Coleman to Feynman, 26 July 1976, CIT.

  405 AGGRESSIVE DOPINESS: Carl Feynman, interview.

  406 HE LISTENED PATIENTLY AS BABA RAM DAS: SYJ, 303–5.

  406 PEOPLE IN HIGHER ECHELONS: He titled the talk, “Los Alamos from Below.” Feynman 1975, 105.

  406 STILL, HE WOULD EMERGE: SYJ, 306.

  406 SPORADICALLY, HE WORKED: E.g., Jon N. Leonard to Feynman, 3 November 1987, and Peter H. Hambling to Feynman, 4 August 1987, CIT.

  407 ARE WE PHYSICS GIANTS: Feynman to Philip Morrison, 23 May 1972, CIT. 407 MYSTICISM, EXPANDED CONSCIOUSNESS: SYJ, 309.

  407 IT HAS TO DO WITH THE QUESTION: Videotape, courtesy of Ralph Leighton.

  407 PEACE OF MIND AND ENJOYMENT: Quoted in Leighton 1991, 83–84.

  408 IT SEEMED TO GWENETH: Gweneth Feynman, interview; William G. Bradley, interview.

  408 BUT YOU CAN’T SEE: Feynman to William G. Bradley, 13 July 1984, CIT.

  409 OKAY, START YOUR WATCH: Weiner, interview.

  409 A RECORD OF THE DAY-TO-DAY WORK: F-W, II-4.

  410 TODAY I WENT OVER TO THE HUNTINGTON: F-L.

  410 AND THE NEXT MORNING, ALL RIGHT: Ibid.

  411 “LISTEN,” I SAID TO THE DISPATCHER: SYJ, 236.

  411 A NICE BROOKLYN RING: Edwin Barber to Feynman, 2 March 1984, CIT.

  411 GELL-MANN’S RAGE COULD BE HEARD: E.g., Tuck, interview.

  411 OF COURSE IT WASN’T TRUE: SYJ, 229. He also changed “Murray Gell-Mann and I wrote a paper on the theory” to “Murray Gell-Mann compared and combined our ideas and wrote a paper on the theory” (232). Gell-Mann still called it “that joke book.” He knew that Feynman had not deliberately tried to take undeserved credit, but he was hurt nonetheless. “He was not at all a thief of ideas—even very generous in some ways,” Gell-Mann said. “It’s just that he was not always capable of regarding other people as really existing.”

  411 A NIFTY BLONDE: SYJ, 241 and 168.

  412 OUT WITH HIS GIRL FRIEND: Lectures, I-3–7.

  412 DEAR ROTHSTEIN: DON’T BUG ME: “Protest,” mimeograph sheet, CIT.

  412 HE HAD SPENT MANY PLEASANT HOURS: Jenijoy La Belle, interview, Pasadena; “Feynman Commends La Belle,” letter to California Tech, 5 March 1976; La Belle 1989.

  413 AND, LIKE FALLING IN LOVE: NL, 435.

  413 SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD THEORY: NL, 456.

  413 THERE IS IN THE WORLD OF PHYSICS: Feynman 1972e, 1.

  414 GENERALLY MR. FEYNMAN IS NOT JOKING: Morrison 1985, 43.

  414 NOT AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Feynman to Robert Crease, 18 September 1985, CIT. And Feynman to Klaus Stadler, 15 October 1985, CIT: “This shows a complete misunderstanding of the nature of my book…. It is not in any way a scientific book, nor a serious one. It is not even an autobiography. It is only a series of short disconnected anecdotes, meant for the general reader which, we hope, the reader will find amusing.”

  414 WHAT I REALLY WAS: Feynman to Crease.

  414 A HALF-HOUR AFTER THE LAUNCH: Richard Witkin, “Canaveral Hopes for Success Fade,” New York Times, 6 March 1958, 1.

  414 THEY USED A ROOM-SIZE: Hibbs, interview.

  416 AN OUTSIDE GROUP OF EXPERTS: “Reagan names panel on shuttle explosion,” Walter V. Robinson, Washington Post, 4 February 1986, 1.

  417 ARMSTRONG SAID ON THE DAY: “President Names 12-Member Panel in Shuttle Inquiry,” Gerald Boyd, New York Times, 4 February 1986, 1.

  417 WE ARE NOT GOING TO CONDUCT: Ibid. In the commission’s first closed session, on February 10, he emphasized: “This is not an adversarial procedure. This commission is not in any way adversarial …” Report, IV, 244.

  417 YOU’RE RUINING MY LIFE: William R. Graham, telephone interview.

  417 FEYNMAN WAS NOW SUFFERING: Haskell, interview.

  417 FEYNMAN HIMSELF REFUSED TO CONSIDER: Haskell, interview.

  417 HE IMMEDIATELY ARRANGED A BRIEFING: Hibbs, interview; Charles Lifer, interview; Winston Gin, interview; WDY, 119–21.

  419 ROGERS OPENED THE FIRST: Report, IV, 1.

  419 IN RESPONSE, MOORE DENIED: Ibid., 21.

  419 A CONCERN BY THIOKOL: Ibid., 97.

  419 NEWSPAPER REPORTS THE NEXT DAY: Esp. David Sanger, “NASA Seems Surprised By Aggressive Queries,” New York Times, 7 February 1986, A19.

  419 THIS IS WHAT WE WOULD HAVE CALLED: Report, IV, 220.

  419 EVERYTHING THAT I KNOW: Ibid., 221.

  420 WHEN WE ASK QUESTIONS: Ibid., 222.

  420 YOU SAID WE DON’T EXPECT IT: Ibid., 224.

  420 CO-PILOT TO PILOT: Donald J. Kutyna, interview, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.; WDY, 126.

  420 I HAVE A PICTURE OF THAT SEAL: Report, IV, 224.

  421 THE LACK OF A GOOD SECONDARY SEAL: “August 19, 1985 Headquarters Briefing,” Report, I, 139; WDY, 135.

  421 LOSS OF VEHICLE, MISSION, AND CREW: “NASA Had Warning of a Disaster Risk Posed by Booster,” Philip Boffey, New York Times, 9 February 1986, 1.

  422 YOU KNOW, THOSE THINGS LEAK: WDY, 139–40; Kutyna, interview. Feynman misremembered this as a telephone conversation.

  422 I THINK IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING: Report, IV, 244.

  422 LAWRENCE MULLOY, PROJECT MANAGER: Ibid., 291.

  422 HOW ARE THESE MATERIALS, THIS PUTTY AND THE RUBBER: Ibid., 347.

  423 IF THIS MATERIAL WEREN’T RESILIENT: Ibid., 345.

  423 HE HAD MADE AN OFFICIAL REQUEST: WDY, 146.

  423 FEYNMAN IS BECOMING A REAL PAIN: David Sanger, personal communication.

  424 YOU DIDN’T, I ASSUME: Report, IV, 380–82.

  424 MULLOY, UNDER FURTHER QUESTIONING: “NASA Acknowledges Cold Affects Boosters Seals,” Philip Boffey, New York Times, 12 February 1986, 1.

  424 THE PUBLIC SAW WITH THEIR OWN EYES: Dyson 1992, 284.

  425 TO EXAGGERATE: to exaggerate how economical: WDY, 214.

  425 ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE: Report, I, 1.

  426 IT WAS A GREAT BIG WORLD: WDY, 158.

  426 KUTYNA TOLD HIM HE WAS THE ONLY: Kutyna, interview; WDY, 156.

  426 IN BETWEEN, HE MADE REPEATED VISITS: F-L.

  426 I AM DETERMINED TO DO THE JOB: Feynman to Gwe
neth Feynman, 12 February 1986, quoted in WDY, 157.

  426 THE COMMISSION STRONGLY RECOMMENDS: WDY, 200–201.

  427 HISTORY OF O-RING PROBLEMS HAD BEEN REPORTED: E.g. Report, I, Appendix H; Graham, interview.

  427 OVERALL HE ESTIMATED: Feynman 1986, F-2. 427 A KIND OF RUSSIAN ROULETTE: Report, I, 148.

  427 IT HAS TO BE UNDERSTOOD: Ibid., IV, 817.

  428 A TEAM OF STATISTICIANS: Dalai et al. 1989; Bruce Hoadley, telephone interview.

  428 FEYNMAN DISCOVERED THAT SOME ENGINEERS: WDY, 182–83.

  428 FOR A SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY: Feynman 1986, F-5.

  EPILOGUE

  429 RATHER THAN EMBARRASS THEM: Lectures, I-16–1.

  430 DID THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE IMPOSE: Lectures, I-6–10.

  430 THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE SIGNALED: Hawking 1987, 55.

  430 IT IS USUALLY THOUGHT THAT THIS INDETERMINACY: Lectures, I-38–9.

  430 IF WATER FALLS OVER A DAM: Ibid.

  431 FIFTY YEARS OF PARTICLE PHYSICS: Cahn and Goldhaber 1989, ix.

  432 A CONTRIVED INTELLECTUAL STRUCTURE: Schwartz 1992, 173.

  432 PEOPLE SAY TO ME, “ARE YOU LOOKING: F-Sy.

  432 WE MAY NOW BE NEAR THE END: Hawking 1987, 156.

  432 I’VE HAD A LIFETIME OF THAT: Interview conducted by P. C. W. Davies, transcript, CIT.

  433 YOUR CAREER SPANS THE PERIOD: Interview conducted by Robert Crease, 22 February 1985; transcript, courtesy of Crease. Robert Crease to Feynman, 18 July 1985, CIT.

  434 I SEE YOU’VE MET DICK: Robert Crease to Feynman, 18 July 1985, CIT.

  435 FORGET ALL THAT “LOCAL MINIMA” STUFF: Hillis 1989, 82.

  435 AND HE BEGAN TO PRODUCE MAVERICK RESEARCH: Feynman 1982; Feynman 1984. 435 THE PHYSICAL REVIEW OF THE BLIND MEN: Lectures, II-20–11.

  435 WE ARE ALL REDUCTIONISTS TODAY: Weinberg 1987a, 66; Weinberg, personal communication.

  436 THE INFINITE VARIETY AND NOVELTY: Lectures, II-41–12.

  436 HE MAY ALSO BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE: Einstein and Infeld 1938, 31.

  436 ONE OF THE GREAT PHILOSOPHERS: Mermin 1985, 47; Feynman 1982, 471.

  437 I HAVE DECIDED IT IS NOT A VERY GOOD IDEA: Feynman to Lee Dye, 23 September

  1987, CIT.

  437 IT IS REALLY LIKE THE SHAPE: Ulam 1976, xi.

  437 I’M GOING TO DIE: Michelle Feynman, interview.

  437 HE WAS WATCHED AND GUARDED: Joan Feynman, Gweneth Feynman, and Frances Lewine, interviews.

  438 TAUGHT PEOPLE MOST OF THE GOOD STUFF: Hillis 1989, 83.