by John Gribbin
But there is another way in which Feynman continues to influence modern physics, and that is through his approach to physics – indeed, to life in general – epitomized by his teaching. Feynman himself suggested that his most important contribution, in the long term, would turn out to be the Lectures, which describe his approach to physics.19 With the evolution of science, it is impossible to predict how long Feynman’s scientific contributions will last, and in what form. But by teaching people how to think, insisting on scrupulous honesty and integrity, never fooling yourself and always rejecting any theory, no matter how cherished, if it disagrees with experiment, and, above all, inspiring an awe and appreciation for nature and a love of science, Feynman made a mark on science which will last whatever happens to the science itself as new experiments to test its predictions are carried out. David Goodstein says that:
His scientific contributions were profound, they are not ordinary. They are not similar to other people’s. He imposed his personality and his view on the world of science; he reformulated quantum mechanics, he virtually reinvented it. And he gave it to us in a form that’s still widely used throughout theoretical physics, in every field.20
As Laurie Brown and John Rigden put it in the introduction to Most of the Good Stuff, ‘there is an important sense in which all modern physicists are Feynman’s students’. And they all miss him.
Notes
1. James Hartle, telephone conversation with JG, December 1995.
2. Feynman Lectures on Gravitation, by Richard Feynman, Fernando Morinigo & William Wagner, edited by Brian Hatfield (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1995). Hereafter referred to as Gravitation.
3. For a description of Einstein’s work and the traditional approach, see Einstein: A Life in Science (Michael White & John Gribbin, Plume, New York, and Simon & Schuster, London, 1995).
4. See Schrödinger’s Kittens.
5. Gravitation.
6. See, for example, At Home in the Universe (Stuart Kauffman, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995), and Kauffman’s earlier book The Origins of Order (Oxford University Press, New York, 1993).
7. George Gamow, My World Line (Viking, New York, 1970).
8. Gravitation.
9. Gravitation.
10. There are sound observational reasons why inflation is taken seriously, which we do not have space to go into here. See In the Beginning by John Gribbin (Penguin, London, and Little, Brown, New York, 1993).
11. Gravitation, Foreword.
12. Comment to JG, December 1995.
13. Mehra.
14. Gravitation.
15. Letter to JG, March 1994.
16. See Schrödinger’s Kittens.
17. Arthur Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World, first delivered as a series of lectures in Edinburgh in 1927, published by Cambridge University Press in 1928 and in many editions down the years, including as an Ann Arbor Paperback by University of Michigan Press, 1958.
18. John Cramer, ‘The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics’, Reviews of Modern Physics, volume 58, p. 647 et seq., 1986. To watch Cramer himself talking about the subject, a video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyFuMy344yw
19. David Goodstein, interview with JG, April 1995.
20. See note 19.
* Of course, it would take for ever for them to fall from infinity; strictly speaking, we should talk about what happens as the separation ‘tends to’ infinity, but the conclusions from the proper mathematical treatment are the same as in our simplistic example.
Epilogue: In search of Feynman’s van
Seven years after Richard Feynman died, one of us (JG) visited Caltech for the first time. One reason for the visit was to give a talk about the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, outlined in Chapter 14, which draws so strongly on Feynman’s own unusual ideas about the nature of electromagnetic radiation, now more than half a century old. It was, to say the least, an unusual feeling to be talking not just from the spot where Feynman himself used to lecture, but about his own work. And when, during the question period at the end of the talk, the discussion moved on to QED, the dreamlike quality of the occasion intensified – an audience at Caltech, of all places, was asking me to explain QED to them!
But the main purpose of the visit was to fill in the background to the Feynman legend in preparation for writing this book, visiting the places where he used to work and meeting the people he used to work with. In the spring of 1995, after an unusually wet late winter, the Caltech campus seemed to be the ideal place for a scientist (or anyone else) to work. With temperatures in the eighties and a cloudless sky, the green open spaces of the campus, shaded by trees and decked with colourful flowerbeds, offered a calm environment highly conducive to gentle contemplation about the mysteries of the Universe. I was reminded of a visit to Laugharne, in South Wales, to the modest building where Dylan Thomas used to work, looking out over the spectacular views and thinking, ‘if I’d lived here, even I might have become a poet’; I may not be much of a physicist, but the atmosphere at Caltech makes you think, ‘if I worked here, even I might have one or two good ideas’. And then you think about the people who have worked there, including Feynman himself, Murray Gell-Mann, whose room was separated from Feynman’s only by Helen Tuck’s office, and Kip Thorne, one of the two or three leading experts on the General Theory of Relativity, still working at Caltech but not too busy to take time off to discuss black holes, time travel and Feynman. And then you think, ‘well, maybe my ideas wouldn’t be that good’.
The point about Caltech, in academic terms, is that not only does it bring out the best work from its scientists, it also (partly for that reason) attracts the best scientists. So what you end up with is the best of the best. There are always top people eager to become part of the Caltech scene; but Feynman himself has never been directly replaced, even though, after his death, a committee was set up to seek a replacement. They failed to find one, because there is nobody like Feynman around today – just as there never was anybody like Feynman, except Feynman himself, around before.
There is no formal memorial to Feynman. No grand building, or statue. Even his grave, shared with Gweneth in Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, is very simple. His real memorial is his work, his books and the video tapes on which he can still be seen, lecturing in his inimitable style, making difficult concepts seem simple. But there is one artefact which strikes a curious resonance with anybody who has ever heard of Feynman, and which I had been urged, by a friend who knows next to nothing about science but still regards Feynman as a hero for our time, to track down while I was in Pasadena.
The opportunity came at the end of a long talk with Ralph Leighton, in the lobby of my hotel on Los Robles Boulevard. My host in Pasadena, Michael Shermer of the Skeptics Society, sat in with us for a conversation which ranged not only over Feynman’s life and work, but also over the reaction of the world at large to his death, and the reaction of Feynman’s family and friends to the way he had been presented in various books and articles since then. That conversation brought me as close as I could ever hope to get to the man himself, confirming and strengthening the impressions I already had about what kind of person he was, and shaping the book which you now hold. Richard Feynman was indeed, as well as being a scientific genius, a good man who spread love and affection among his family, friends and acquaintances. In spite of the dark period in his life after the death of Arline, he was a sunny character who made people feel good, a genuinely fun-loving, kind and generous man, as well as being the greatest physicist of his generation. And it is that spirit, rather than the physics, which makes people so curious about the artefact – Feynman’s famous van, replete with diagrams.
Our conversation with Leighton had been so intense that I hesitated to bring up the relatively trivial question I had promised to ask. But as we walked him back to his car in the spring sunshine, I reminded myself that a promise is a promise. ‘By the way,’ I said, ‘whatever happened to
Feynman’s van?’ ‘It’s still in the family, so to speak’, he replied. Michael Shermer’s ears visibly pricked up at the news: ‘Where?’ ‘It needs some work. It’s parked out at the back of a repair shop in …’ and he gave us the name of another part of the Los Angeles urban sprawl, out to the east of Pasadena.
That, I thought, was the end of it. I had no transport of my own in Pasadena, and although I’d kept my promise to ask after the van, I wouldn’t be able, as I’d hoped, to get a picture of it for my friend. I had a radio talk show engagement ahead of me, and an early flight out the next morning. But Shermer had other ideas. He offered to drive me over to find the van as soon as I’d finished at KPCC-FM, and seemed at least as eager as I was to make the pilgrimage. A couple of hours later, we were cruising around the location that Leighton had pointed us towards, stopping to call him on Shermer’s car phone for directions each time we got lost. Just as the sun was setting, we found the repair shop, parked and walked around the back. There it was. Feynman’s van, nose up against the wall, looking slightly battered but still with its decorative paintwork of Feynman diagrams. It had clearly been there for some time, and delicate spring flowers were growing up around its wheels.
We took our pictures and left, congratulating ourselves on completing the ‘Feynman tour’ successfully. Twelve hours later, I was in San Francisco, and it was only on my return home that I heard from Shermer about the sequel to the story. The next day, he had happily recounted the tale of our search for Feynman’s van to a friend who works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a space research centre in Pasadena. The friend, a sober scientist himself, and hardly an obvious science ‘groupie’, eagerly asked for directions to the repair shop, and went out there the same day, armed with his own camera. Shermer’s joke about the Feynman tour has now almost become reality, with a succession of visitors to the relic – and out of all the pictures I brought back from my California trip, the ones that continue to rouse the most interest are the ones of a beaten up old van parked at the back of a repair shop somewhere east of Pasadena.
I’m not sure why, even though I share something of this enthusiasm. But it’s nice to know that something which demonstrates so clearly Feynman’s sense of fun and irreverence, as well as referring to his Nobel Prize-winning work, still exists. Leighton suggests that the symbol is particularly appropriate, because the van itself is a symbol of Feynman’s free spirit, a vehicle of exploration and discovery of the everyday world, while the diagrams symbolize his exploration and enjoyment of the world of physics. Together, they represent what Feynman was all about – the joy of discovery, and the pleasure of finding things out. Leighton says he will make sure the van stays in the family of Feynman’s friends, and suggests that it might one day form the centrepiece of a travelling Feynman exhibit. Now that sounds like the kind of memorial even Feynman might have approved of.
Bibliography
Further reading
Books marked with an asterisk include equations and are more technical (at least in parts) than the present book. The rest are accessible at about the same level as this book.
Mainly about Feynman
Richard Feynman & Ralph Leighton, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (W. W. Norton, New York, 1985).
Richard Feynman & Ralph Leighton, What Do You Care What Other People Think? (W. W. Norton, New York, 1988).
Ralph Leighton, Tuva or Bust! (W. W. Norton, New York, 1991).
Christopher Sykes (editor), No Ordinary Genius: The Illustrated Richard Feynman (W. W. Norton, New York, 1994). This is the book which Feynman’s family and friends recommend as providing the most ‘true to life’ image of the man.
About Feynman’s life and work
Laurie Brown & John Rigden (editors), Most of the Good Stuff (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1993).
James Gleick, Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics (Pantheon, New York, 1992).
*Jagdish Mehra, The Beat of a Different Drum (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994).
See also the chapters relating to his relationship with Feynman in Freeman Dyson’s books Disturbing the Universe (Basic Books, New York, 1979) and From Eros to Gaia (Pantheon, New York, 1992).
The impact of Feynman’s ideas about tiny machines is discussed in NANO!, by Ed Regis (Bantam Press, London, 1995).
About quantum physics, including Feynman’s contributions
Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Law (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1965).
Richard Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1985).
Richard Feynman, Six Easy Pieces (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1995).
Richard Feynman & Steven Weinberg, Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987).
*Richard Feynman, Robert Leighton & Matthew Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Three volumes, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1963).
*Richard Feynman, Fernando Morinigo & William Wagner (edited by Brian Hatfield), Feynman Lectures on Gravitation (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1995).
John Gribbin, In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat (Bantam, New York, 1984).
John Gribbin, Schrödinger’s Kittens (Little, Brown, New York, 1995).
*Silvan S. Schweber, QED and the Men Who Made It (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1994).
Also of interest
Alice Kimball Smith & Charles Weiner (editors), Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections (Harvard University Press, 1980).
Michelle Feynman, The Art of Richard P. Feynman (Gordon & Breach, Basel, 1995). Many of Feynman’s drawings, and a few paintings, chosen and photographed by his daughter, Michelle.
Richard Feynman (edited by Anthony Hey & Robin Allen), Feynman Lectures on Computation (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass, 1996).
David Goodstein & Judith Goodstein, Feynman’s Lost Lecture (Jonathan Cape, London, 1996).
Index
Numbers in italics refer to Figures.
A
A (axial) interactions 1, 2, 3
absolute zero 1
absorber theory of radiation see Wheeler–Feynman theory
ace model 1, 2
action at a distance 1, 2, 3, 4
Albert Einstein Award 1
algebra 1
Alix G. Mautner Memorial Lectures 1
American Institute of Physics 1
American Museum of Natural History 1
American Physical Society 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
amplitudes 1, 2, 3, 4
Anderson, Carl 1
antimatter 1
antineutrino 1
antiparticles, and particles 1, 2
Aristophanes 1
arithmetic 1
Armstrong, Neil 1
Asimov, Isaac 1
astronomy 1, 2, 3
asymptotic freedom 1
atom Bohr’s model 1, 2
electron cloud 1, 2, 3, 4
orbits 1, 2
structure of 1, 2
atomic hypothesis 1
atomic theory 1
‘Atoms for Peace’ conference (Geneva, 1958) 1
aurora borealis 1, 2, 3
B
Bacher, Robert 1, 2, 3, 4
Bader, Abram 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Bardeen, James 1
Bardeen, John 1, 2, 3
Barnes, Dr Edwin 1
baryons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 1, 2
BCS theory of superconductivity 1, 2
Bell Laboratories 1, 2
Bennett, Charles 1
Bernoulli’s equation 1
Bessel functions 1
beta decay 1, 2, 3, 4
Bethe, Hans 1, 2, 3, 4 at Cornell 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
F. impressed with his skills 1
and General Electric 1
and how nuclear fusion reactions keep the Sun hot 1
and infinities in QED 1, 2
at Los Alamos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Nobel Prize
1
Bevatron 1
Big Bang 1
binary pulsar 1
biology 1, 2, 3, 4
Bjorken, James 1, 2, 3, 4
black body 1, 2, 3, 4
black body curve 1, 2, 3
black holes 1, 2, 3, 4
Block, Martin 1
Bohr, Niels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Bohr’s model of the atom 1, 2
Bose–Einstein condensates 1
Bose–Einstein statistics 1
Bose, Satyendra 1, 2
bosons 1 intermediate vector 1, 2
Brattain, Walter 1
Brewster’s Angle 1
British Library 1
Broglie, Louis Victor, Prince de 1
Brown, Laurie 1
Brown University 1
Byers, Nina 1
C
calculus 1, 2, 3
Calculus for the Practical Man (Thompson) 1
Calculus Made Easy (Thompson) 1
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 1, 2 Athenaeum Club 1, 2, 3, 4
F. appointed Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics 1
F. at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
and F.’s blood transfusions 1, 2
F.’s relationship with his students 1, 2
Gell-Mann at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
and gravitational radiation 1
Hoyle at 1, 2, 3
Kellogg Radiation Laboratory 1, 2
physics teaching 1
Physics X course 1, 2
stages Guys and Dolls 1
stages South Pacific 1
