by James Gleick
at Pocono, 5, 7, 255–58
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 56, 76, 99–100, 260
religion and, 58
renormalization and, 347–49
Schwinger and, 48–49
Slater and, 53–54
Dirac equation, 5, 73, 229–30, 234, 261–62, 336–38
discovery, 284, 313–14, 321
individual vs. multiple, 329
myths of, 279, 315, 380
DNA, 14, 293, 349–351, 355, 386
Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick), 156
Don Juan, 319
Double Helix, The (Watson), 386
DuBridge, Lee, 295, 415
Duff, William, 313
Dyson, Freeman J., 298
background, 235–38
at Cornell, 235, 238
Feynman and, 3–4, 7, 240–41, 244, 249–51, 262–66, 273, 323, 368, 424
genius and, 317, 320–21, 323, 328
Nobel Prize, 377–78
Oppenheimer and, 269–70
quantum electrodynamics, 239–40, 252, 259, 263, 266–72, 274, 279–80, 307, 309, 348, 367
Schwinger and, 261, 266–68, 271
Dyson, George, 235, 267
Dyson, Mildred, 235–36
Dyson graph, 269, 273
earthquake science, 281–82
Eastman, George, 55
Eddington, Arthur, 52, 75, 109, 433
Edgerton, Harold, 77
Edison, Thomas Alva, 40–44, 54–55, 319–20, 329
Einstein, Albert, 5, 9–10, 45, 54, 56, 70, 112, 120, 123, 129, 209, 244, 264, 281, 324, 386, 433–34
atomic bomb, 136
Bohr and, 40
brain, 311–12
ether, 18, 101–2
Feynman and, 98, 115, 117, 118–19, 257
legend, 41–44, 311–13, 320–22, 326
Nobel Prize, 375–77
photoelectric effect, 71, 377
on Princeton, 97
on quantum mechanics, 40, 45, 215, 243, 347
relativity, 42–43, 71, 72, 255, 329, 351–52, 365, 368, 375, 429–30
religion and, 58, 372
retirement, 118–19
Einstein Award, 295–96, 343, 378–79
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 296, 297, 340
electric light, 319, 329
electricity, 320
electron, 4, 5, 33, 71–73, 79, 86, 114, 122–23, 127, 231–32, 283, 306
-electron interaction, 48–49, 273
-neutron interaction, 270–71
-photon interaction, 241–42, 246
-positron interaction, 253–54
-proton interaction, 391–95
in beta decay, 335–37
magnetic moment, 251–52
reality of, 375
self-energy, 99–102, 109–12, 239–40, 251–52, 256, 273–75, 380
in solids, 88–90, 349
spin, 229–31, 239
two-slit experiment, 247–48, 250, 366
electron microscope, 38, 355
electroweak theory, 431
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 25, 38, 49, 286, 354–55
energy, 31, 38–39
conservation of, 60, 88, 139, 330, 360–61
force vs., 87–89, 226
gravity waves and, 352
infinite, 49, 99, 253
kinetic and potential, 60–61, 121
mass and, 4, 42
negative, 122, 253
quantum mechanics and, 71–72, 74, 127
textbooks and, 398
Engineering and Science, 355–56
ENIAC, 182
entropy, 355, 362–63, 435
Erhard, Werner, 405–6
Esalen Institute, 407
est Foundation, 405
ether, 18, 42, 48, 101
Ethical Culture School (New York), 24, 159
Euclid, 34, 41, 121
evolution, 31–32, 208, 332
exclusion principle, 6–7, 255, 258
explanation, 357, 364–75
Explorer satellites, 415–16
Far Rockaway (New York), 20–24, 45–49, 64, 98, 126, 191, 409
Temple Israel, 219, 296
Far Rockaway High School, 30–36, 60–61, 302
Young People’s Socialist League, 296
Faraday, Michael, 101
Faulkner, William, 380
Faust (Goethe), 52, 66, 208, 236
Federal Bureau of Investigation, 296–97
Fermat, Pierre de, 57–58, 61, 250
Fermat’s last theorem, 267
Fermi, Enrico, 305, 309
calculating ability, 175
death, 294
Feynman and, 282–83
as genius, 322
“lightness of approach,” 166–67
nuclear reactor, 146, 157, 161
nuclear research, 79, 95, 173
at Pocono, 5, 255–57
Schwinger and, 216
at Trinity, 155, 203
Fermi-Dirac statistics, 399
Fermi interaction, see weak interaction
Feynman, Anne (paternal grandmother), 24
Feynman, Arline Greenbaum (first wife), 45–46, 64–65, 67, 69, 91, 116–17, 146, 184–88, 206, 212–14, 221–22, 264, 287, 289, 290, 343, 409–10
illness, 117, 126–27, 134–35, 149–51, 159–60, 170, 191–96, 200–202
marriage, 149–51
Feynman, Carl (son), 346, 378, 396–98, 405, 409, 435
Feynman, Gweneth Howarth (third wife), 340–47, 353, 378, 401–2, 405, 408, 426, 438
Feynman, Henry Phillips (brother), 25–26, 46, 221
Feynman, Joan (sister), 16, 19, 26–27, 30, 40–42, 46, 64, 135, 194–95, 202, 220–21, 335–36, 438
Feynman, Louis (paternal grandfather), 24
Feynman, Lucille (née Phillips, mother), 15, 19, 23, 24–26, 27–28, 32, 40–42, 46, 115, 149–51, 156, 159, 169, 182–83, 201, 213–14, 220–21, 263, 293, 346, 378–79, 397
Feynman, Mary Louise (second wife), see Bell,
Mary Louise
Feynman, Melville (father), 22, 24–26, 27–31, 40–42, 46, 68, 91, 126, 133, 149–51, 169, 176, 186, 214, 219–22, 242, 379, 388, 410
Feynman, Michelle (daughter), 346, 396–98, 401, 408, 437
Feynman, Richard Phillips
“aggressive dopiness,” 405
ambition, 34, 170, 265–66
atomic bomb and, 3, 6, 11, 15, 140, 153–205, 213, 216, 218, 224–25, 263–64, 417
awards, 295–96, 343, 375–86
beaches and, 21–22, 283–87, 339, 401
beauty and, 13, 373, 435
birth, 25
books, 11–13
The Character of Physical Law, 13, 364–71
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, 12, 21–22, 37–38, 145, 357–64, 407, 435–36
Photon-Hadron Interactions, 395
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, 13
Quantum Electrodynamics, 12
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, 11, 409–11
Theory of Fundamental Processes, 12
What Do You Care What Other People Think?, 11
calculating ability, 9–10, 14–15, 33–36, 60, 175–78
California Institute of Technology and, 277–78, 282–83, 293–94, 311, 338, 340–41, 349, 398, 404, 406–7, 435, 437
Challenger and, 11, 145, 415–28
childhood, 17–49
children, 346, 378, 396–98, 401, 405, 408–9, 435, 437
college admission, 49
consulting, 223, 295, 406, 434
at Cornell, 3, 10, 204, 214–22, 225–27, 277–78, 286, 288, 293–94, 365
culture and, 14, 32, 65, 83, 185, 285–87, 292
diagrams and, 7–8, 11, 17, 104, 130–31
divorce, 293
draft status, 222–25, 297
dreams, 69–70
drugs and, 14, 406
education, 30–36, 55–56, 60–61
as educator, 12, 98, 216–18, 262, 278–79, 357–60, 397–401
Gell-Mann and, 11, 310–11, 315, 332–39, 346–47, 354, 367, 387–89, 411, 434
graduation, 91–92, 148
honorary degrees, 148, 384
illness, 401–4, 408, 410, 417, 437–38
investigation of, 296–97
irresponsibility, 181, 200, 386, 388
lecturing, 114–15
marriages, 151, 292, 346
Mexico house, 379, 402
money and, 98, 192, 349, 406–7
Nobel Prize, 9, 49, 375–83
“Notebook of Things I Don’t Know About,”130
obituary, 437
parents and, 25–30, 91, 149–51, 215–16, 220–21
patents of, 15, 218
physical intuition, 131, 142, 243–45, 302–3, 325–26
poetry and, 7–8, 31–32, 69, 105, 244, 373–74, 412–13, 436–37
politics, 292, 297
psychiatry and, 223–25
radios and, 17–19, 46–47
rationality, 70, 115–16, 220–22
religion and, 22–23, 31–32, 65, 84–85, 115, 220–21, 372–73
reputation, 3, 9–12, 36, 51, 96, 129–31, 184
rhythmic sense, 16, 65, 78, 106, 191, 243, 277, 286
safecracking, 15, 189–90
scientific work computing, 6, 138, 175–82, 190–91, 198, 201, 329, 407–8, 414–15, 435
cosmic rays, 81–82, 215
electrodynamics (Wheeler-Feynman), 110–15, 117–29, 147, 215, 246, 253–54, 381
forces in molecules, 9, 86–90
genetics, 14, 349–51
gravitation, 9, 120, 316, 351–54, 434
partons, 9, 390–96
path integrals, 132, 174, 229–31, 246–51, 254–55, 275, 349, 354
predetonation, 6, 168–69
quantum electrodynamics, 6–9, 127–29, 146–48, 245–52, 258, 267–77
quantum mechanics, 74–76
superfluidity, 9, 298–303
tiny machines, 14, 354–56, 407
weak interactions, 9, 335–39
and the sixties, 405–7
socialization of, 26–27, 32, 45–46, 62–64, 97–98
sports and, 32, 63, 401
storytelling, 11, 25, 28–29, 46–47, 222–25
theses, 9, 86–90, 138–41, 146–48, 215, 229, 246, 249
war work, 137–38. See also isotron project; atomic bomb
women and, 3, 5, 32, 45–46, 63–64, 97, 192, 200, 212, 277, 286–93, 342–46, 411–12
Feynman diagrams, 7–8, 11, 270–76, 282, 303, 330, 335, 348, 352, 394, 437
acceptance of, 275–78
precursors, 104, 130–31
Schwinger and, 276–77
Feynman-Hellmann theorem, 89—90
Feynman Lectures on Physics, 12, 21–22, 37–38, 145, 357–64, 407, 435–36
Field, Richard, 402–3
field, 18–19,48–49, 121, 139, 260
derived from quantum mechanics, 368
Feynman’s aversion to, 100–101, 109–10, 146–47, 250, 380
gravitational, 74, 351–52
neutrino, 337
particles and, 102, 132, 275
parton, 391–95
paths of, 275
visualization of, 102, 242, 245–46
field theory, 48–49, 118, 146, 250, 256, 261–62, 275, 279–80, 326, 348, 381, 402
decline of, 330
fission, nuclear, 79, 95, 136, 146, 161–63, 168, 172–73
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 97
flavor (particle property), 229, 390, 403
Fleming, Alexander, 133, 329
Flexagons, 9, 103–4, 131
“The Flight of the Bumblebee,” 15
Fonda, Henry, 44
Ford, Henry, 40
Fort Knox, 164
Fowler, Willy, 316
Frankel, Stanley, 180
Frankford Arsenal (Philadelphia), 137–38
free will, 431
French, Bruce, 253–54
Freud, Sigmund, 318, 326
friction, 9, 29, 299–302, 356, 361, 398
Frisch, Otto, 154, 203
Fuchs, Klaus, 6, 185, 187, 190, 191, 201, 296–97
functional roots, 137
Gardner, Martin, 104
gauge invariance, 256
Gauss, Carl Friedrich, 311
Gell-Mann, Margaret, 346
Gell-Mann, Murray, 232, 348, 351, 382
background, 307–9
at Caltech, 311, 338, 340–41, 346–47, 402, 405, 407
Feynman and, 11, 310–11, 315, 332–39, 346–47, 354, 367, 387–89, 411, 434
Nobel Prize, 376–77, 396
parity, 332–35
quarks, 390–96
on Schwinger, 277, 308
on solid-state physics, 14
strangeness, 309–10, 360
SU(3), 387, 389–91
weak interactions, 335–39
Gelman, Benedict, 308
General Electric, 141, 223
general relativity, see relativity
genetics, 14, 133, 293, 349–51, 355, 358
Geneva, 339–40
genius, 8, 36, 311–29
American, 318–19
disappearance of, 312, 327–29
Edison as, 319–20
imagination in, 313, 324–25
literature of, 312–15
madness and, 314–19
as “magician,” 10–11, 312, 315–17, 324
mythologizing of, 10–11, 43–44, 315, 322
originality, 10, 324–26
physical basis of, 311–12
physicists’ view of, 8, 322–24
rationalization of, 315–16
Gerard, Alexander, 314
Germany, 22, 42, 77–78, 97, 128, 140, 167, 260, 414
Gershwin, George, 186
Gilbert, William, 68
Glashow, Sheldon, 405
God, 317, 318, 322, 372–73, 398
Feynman and, 31–32, 115, 220–21, 372–73
proofs of, 58–59, 67–68
scientists and, 58–60
Gödel, Kurt, 295, 429
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 66, 236
Goldberger, Marvin, 293, 404
Goodstein, David, 12 n, 363, 386–87
Gordon, Walter, 73
Gould, Stephen Jay, 327
Graduate Record Examination, 83–84
Graham, William R., 417–21
gravitation, 9, 42, 56, 74–75, 111, 115, 120, 309, 316, 351–54, 365
Groves, Leslie R., 143–44, 159–60
Grünewald, Matthias, 65–66
gyroscope, 362
hadron, 392–95
Hamiltonian method, 128, 226
Handler, Philip, 384
Hardy, Godfrey Harold, 236
Harvard University, 83, 85, 97, 141–42, 160, 182, 216, 276–77, 308, 378, 404
Harvey, Thomas S., 311–12
Harvey, William, 68
Hawking, Stephen, 322, 430–32
Heisenberg, Werner. See also uncertainty in quantum mechanics
atomic bomb and, 140
cosmic rays and, 82
Feynman and, 404
quantum mechanics, 72–73, 75, 88, 102, 232, 246, 269, 367, 391
S matrix, 267, 329
Tomonaga and, 260
on visualization, 5, 242
youth of, 52, 78
helium, see superfluidity
hexaflexagons, see flexagons
Hibbs, Albert, 415
Hiroshima, 156, 203–4, 210, 218, 237, 263
history of science, 11, 41, 279–80, 313–14, 320, 322, 380
Hitchcock, Alfred, 223
Hofstadter, Douglas, 404
Holton, Gerald, 245, 385–86
Homer, 313, 314, 317
Hoover, J. Edgar, 296
Hopfield, John, 434
Hubble, Edwin, 124
Hughes Aircraft Company, 406, 415
Huxley, Thomas, 66
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br /> Huygens, Christiaan, 250
hydrodynamics, 163, 299
hydrogen, 72–74, 79, 94, 161–62, 164, 173, 198, 234
hydrogen bomb, 6, 204, 258, 278, 296, 365
Idlewild Field (Kennedy International Airport), 20
inertia, 29, 174–75, 259
infinities, see quantum mechanics
Institute for Advanced Study, 94, 106, 227, 266–70,, 295, 309, 346, 377
intelligence tests, 30
interference, 111–12, 247, 250
International Business Machines Corporation, 179–82, 198, 407, 414
Interscholastic Algebra League (New York), 32–34, 83
isotopic spin, 282, 306–7, 387
isotron project, 139–45, 157
Jacobs, Morrie, 47
Jarvis, Gregory, 415
Jehle, Herbert, 128–29, 136
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 281, 404, 414–15, 417–18
Johns Hopkins University, 94
Johnson Space Center, 426
Jones, James, 327
Jornada del Muerto (N.M.), 154, 202
Judaism, 22–23, 27–28, 65, 85, 220–21
Kac, Mark, 10–11, 249, 315, 322–23
Kazin, Alfred, 21
Kemble, Edwin C, 53
Kennedy Space Center, 426
Keynes, John Maynard, 317
Klein-Gordon equation, 73–74, 336
Klein, Oskar, 73
knowledge. See also uncertainty
faith and, 37, 58, 221
false, 373–74, 407
fundamental, 14, 22, 357, 435–36
guilty, 3, 203, 207–10, 263–64
hoarded, 316–17
rote, 66, 283–84, 398–401
philosophy of, 357, 364–75, 429
practical, 14–16, 36, 68, 366
scarcity of, 47–48
secret, 210
stratification of, 9, 67, 372
Kuhn, Thomas S., 321–22
Kusch, Polykarp, 377
Kutyna, Donald J., 416, 419–23, 426
Kyōto University, 259–60
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Lawrence), 192
Lady Eve, The, 44
Lagrange, Joseph Louis, 59–61, 250
Lagrangian method, 60–61, 88, 128–32, 147, 170–71, 228
Lamb, Willis, 234, 239, 377
Lamb shift, 234, 239–40, 251–53, 260
Landau, Lev, 130, 239 n, 297, 298, 300–301
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, Marquis de, 430
Laurence, William L., 40 n, 154–55 n
Lauritsen, Charles, 282
Lavatelli, Leo, 144 n
Lavoisier, Antoine-Laurent, 39
law, scientific, 29, 57–61, 101, 109, 244, 265, 294, 299, 317, 325, 338, 365–67, 411
lawn-sprinkler problem, 106–8
Lawrence, D. H., 237
Lawrence, Ernest O., 130, 136, 166, 226
calutron, 142–44
least action, principle of, 57–61, 228, 362, 366
