Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

by James Gleick

  7 THIS WONDERFUL VISION OF THE WORLD: Dyson 1979, 62.

  7 THANK GOD: W.H. Auden, “After Reading a Child’s Guide to Modern Physics,” Selected Poetry of W. H. Auden (New York: Vintage, 1971), 214.

  7 A POEM FEYNMAN DETESTED: Feynman to Mrs. Robert Weiner, 24 October 1967, CIT. Auden wrote, “This passion of our kind/For the process of finding out/Is a fact one can hardly doubt”—and Feynman resented his adding, “But I would rejoice in it more/If I knew more clearly what/We wanted the knowledge for.” Feynman said: “We want it so we can love Nature more… . A modern poet is directly confessing not understanding the emotional value of knowledge of nature.”

  9 WE PUT OUR FOOT IN A SWAMP: Albert R. Hibbs, interview, Pasadena, Calif.

  9 A LITTLE BIZARRE: Snow 1981, 142–43.

  10 A SHALLOW WAY TO JUDGE: Morrison 1988, 42.

  10 WE GOT THE INDELIBLE IMPRESSION: David Park, personal communication.

  10 DICK COULD GET AWAY WITH A LOT: Sidney Coleman, interview, Cambridge, Mass.

  10 FEYNMAN TRIED TO STAND ON HIS OWN: Kac 1985, 116.

  10 THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF GENIUSES: Ibid., XXV.

  11 ANGERED HIS FAMILY: E.g., Gweneth Feynman, interview, Altadena, Calif.; Gell-Mann 1989a, 50.

  11 HE’S NO FEYNMAN, BUT: Morrison 1988, 42.

  12 A HALF-SERIOUS DEBATE: Coleman, interview.

  12 BOOK II, CHAPTER 41, VERSE 6: D. Goodstein 1989, 75.

  13 PHILOSOPHERS ARE ALWAYS ON THE OUTSIDE: CPL, 173.

  13 IT HAS NOT YET BECOME OBVIOUS: Feynman 1982, 471.

  13 DO NOT KEEP SAYING TO YOURSELF: CPL, 129

  13 NATURE USES ONLY THE LONGEST THREADS: Ibid., 34; draft, PERS.

  15 AN OFFICIAL SECRECY ORDER: U. S. Department of Commerce Rescinding Order, 7 January 1966, CIT.

  15 HE DID THE TRAINING IN STAGES: Ralph Leighton, interview, Pasadena.

  16 A TWO-HANDED POLYRHYTHM: Theodore Schultz, interview, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

  16 AN HONEST MAN: Schwinger 1989, 48.

  FAR ROCKAWAY

  Family members and childhood friends provided recollections and copies of correspondence from the 1920s and 1930s: Joan Feynman, Frances Lewine, Jules Greenbaum (Arline Greenbaum’s brother), Leonard Mautner, Jerry Bishop, Mary D. Lee, and Novera H. Spector. Far Rockaway High School and the Brooklyn Historical Society had records, school newspapers, Chamber of Commerce publications, and other useful documents from the period. Sali Ann Kriegsman and Charles Weiner kindly shared transcripts of oral-history interviews they had conducted with Lucille Feynman.

  18 HE ASSEMBLED A CRYSTAL SET: F-W, 35.

  18 WHEN ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS WERE RIGHT: SYJ, 5.

  18 EINSTEIN WAS SHOWING: Einstein 1909.

  18 IT SEEMS THAT THE AETHER: Weyl 1922, 172.

  19 “THE SHADOW” and “UNCLE DON”: F-W, 35.

  19 A COIL SALVAGED FROM A FORD: SYJ, 4.

  19 STANDARD EMERGENCY PROCEDURE: Frances Lewine, interview, Washington, D.C., and Far Rockaway.

  19 DANGLING HIS METAL WASTEBASKET: Lucille Feynman to Feynman, 8 August 1945, PERS.

  19 HIS SISTER, JOAN: Joan Feynman, interview, Pasadena.

  20 RICHARD WALKED TO THE LIBRARY: Feynman, interview conducted by Sali Ann Kriegsman, 27 October 1975.

  21 WHEN I WAS A CHILD: Kazin 1951, 8–10.

  21 IT SOMETIMES SEEMED THAT THE THINGS NEAR THE SEA: Feynman-Kriegsman.

  21 SOMETIMES FELT GAWKY: Evelyn Frank, interview, Marina del Rey, Calif.

  22 IF WE STAND ON THE SHORE: Lectures, II-2-1.

  22 IS THE SAND OTHER THAN THE ROCKS?: Ibid.

  22 WHEN FEYNMAN RETURNED: Gweneth Feynman, interview, Altadena; Feynman-Kriegsman.

  22 THOSE LITTLE HATS THAT THEY WEAR: Feynman-Kriegsman.

  23 THAT WAS THE WAY THE WORLD WAS: Ibid.

  24 LUCILLE WAS THE DAUGHTER: Lucille Feynman, interview conducted by Charles Weiner, MIT Oral History Program, 4 February 1981.

  25 DON’T GET MARRIED: Ibid.

  25 DON’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS: Ibid.

  25 BEFORE THE BABY WAS OUT: F-W, 7–8.

  25 HE WAS TWO BEFORE HE TALKED: Lucille Feynman-Weiner.

  25 TWENTY-FIVE FEET HIGH: F-Sy.

  25 HER MOTHER SUFFERED: Joan Feynman, interview.

  26 WITήIN DAYS THE BABY: Ibid.

  26 A BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND A HAT: Ibid.

  26 SOME EVENINGS THE ADULTS: Lewine, interview.

  26 THE HOUSEHOLD HAD TWO OTHER: Joan Feynman, interview conducted by Charles Weiner, MIT Oral History Program, 30 July 1981; Lewine, interview.

  27 LOOK UP: Joan Feynman, “Relinquishing the Aurora,” letter, Eos, 1989, 1649.

  27 RITT? WIRED HIS LABORATORY: F-W, 35–37.

  27 IT WORKS!: Joan Feynman, interview.

  27 IT WAS WORTH IT: F-W, 34.

  28 SO THAT HE CAN BETTER FACE THE WORLD: Melville Feynman to Feynman, 10 September 1944, PERS.

  28 WHEN A CHILD DOES SOMETHING: Ibid.

  28 WHEN MELVILLE TOOK HIS SON: F-W, 14.

  28 SEE THAT BIRD?: WDY, 13–14.

  29 “THAT,” HE SAYS, “NOBODY KNOWS”: F-Sy; cf. “Inertia,” notes, n.d., CIT: “Is inertia an intrinsic fundamental force which will always defy a more ultimate analysis? Or is inertia a force which has its origin in the workings of other recognized forces like gravitation or electricity?”

  30 IT’S A WAY OF DOING PROBLEMS: F-W, 15.

  30 JOANIE, IF 2x: Joan Feynman-Weiner.

  30 ALGEBRA 2, TAUGHT BY MISS MOORE: Leonard Mautner, interview. Pacific Palisades, Calif.

  30 HIS SCORE ON THE SCHOOL IQ TEST: Feynman 1965d, 15.

  30 AN INTELLECTUAL DESERT: F-W, 39

  30 A SET OF FOUR EQUATIONS: Ibid., 23 and 39.

  30 ALL FEYNMAN REMEMBERED: Ibid., 38

  31 ENERGY PLAYS AN IMPORTANT PART: “Energy,” poem, n.d., AIP.

  31 SCIENCE IS MAKING US WONDER: “We Are Forgetful,” poem, n.d., AIP.

  32 SISSY-LIKE: F-L; edited version in SYJ, 67.

  32 THE SIGHT OF A BALL: WDY, 24.

  32 ANXIETY WOULD STRIKE: Ibid., 21.

  32 HIS FIRST CHEMISTRY SET: F-W, 33

  32 GOODY-GOOD: Ibid., 21; Feynman 1965d, 11.

  32 IN PHYSICS CLUB: The Dolphin, Far Rockaway High School, June 1935, 33.

  33 MATH TEAM: SYJ, 10–11; Jerry Bishop, telephone interview; Novera H. Spector, telephone interview.

  34 A LOUD SIGH: Feynman 1965d, 12.

  34 FEYNMAN PLACED FIRST: The Dolphin, Far Rockaway High School, June 1935, 33.

  34 TWO CHILDREN IN HIGH SCHOOL: F-W, 63; Mautner, interview.

  36 MR. AUGSBURY ABDICATED: Harold I. Lief to Ralph Leighton, 10 December 1988.

  36 MAD GENIUS: The Dolphin, Far Rockaway High School, June 1935.

  36 SOME OBSERVATIONS SUPPORTED THE NOTION: Melsen 1952, 22.

  37 HOW DO SHARP THINGS STAY SHARP: F-W, 46.

  37 ALL THINGS ARE MADE OF ATOMS: Lectures, I-1–2

  38 BELIEVE THE EXISTENCE OF ATOMS: Bohr 1922, 315.

  38 PURE CHEMISTRY, EVEN TO-DAY: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 13th ed., 1926, 870.

  39 MATTER IS UNCHANGEABLE: Boscovitch 1922, 36; Park 1988, 200–201.

  40 THE SCIENCE KNOWN AS CHEMICAL PHYSICS: Slater 1975, 193.

  40 WE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO RECOGNIZE: Bohr was creating publicity for his philosophical interpretation of quantum mechanics. The press cooperated enthusiastically, although it posed difficulties for headline writers. William L. Laurence of the New York Times wrote optimistically: “The new theory is expected … to take its place alongside relativity and quantum mechanics as one of the revolutionary developments of modern scientific thought…. Professor Bohr, after a lifetime of contemplation of both the ponderables and the imponderables of the physical and mental world, has come to discover an inherent essential duality…. In other words the very process of knowing one aspect of nature makes it impossible for us to know the other aspect.” “Jekyll-Hyde Mind Attributed to Man,” New York Times, 23 June 1933, 1.

  40 FOR THE
OCCASION: Joan Feynman-Weiner, 28–29.

  40 KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: F-W, 78.

  41 NEW YORK IN 1982: Chase 1932, 13.

  41 ELECTRICITY POWERED THE HUMAN BRAIN: William A. Laurence, “Brain Phone Lines Counted as 1 Plus 15 Million Zeroes,” New York Times, 25 June 1933.

  41 IN AN OPENING-DAY STUNT: Dedmon 1953, 334.

  41 HERE ARE CATHERED THE EVIDENCES: “Chicago Fair Opened by Farley; Rays of Arcturus Start Lights,” New York Times, 28 May 1933.

  41 A 151 -WORD WALL MOTTO: “Science in 151 Words,” New York Times, 4 June 1933.

  42 EINSTEIN’S SUPPOSED CLAIM: Cf. Kevles 1987, 175, and Pais 1982, 309. Einstein seems not to have disavowed the remark when given the chance.

  42 LIGHTS ALL ASKEW IN THE HEAVENS: New York Times, 9 November 1919, quoted in Pais 1982, 309.

  42 A SERIES OF EDITORIALS: Pais 1982, 309.

  42 MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED BOOKS: Clark 1971, 247.

  42 TRANSMITTED BY UNDERWATER CABLE: Kevles 1987, 175.

  42 WE HAVE EINSTEIN’S SPACE: Quoted in Clark 1971, 242.

  44 THERE ARE NO PHYSICISTS IN AMERICA: Raymond T. Birge to John van Vleck, 10 March 1927, quoted in Schweber 1986ft, 55–56.

  45 I BELIEVE THAT MINNEAPOLIS: Quoted in Kevles 1987, 168.

  45 ON THE BEACH SOME DAYS: Lewine, interview; Joan Feynman, interview; Joan Feynman-Weiner.

  45 SHORTLY HE FOUND HIMSELF LYING: F-W, 117.

  45 ONE HORRIBLY RUDE BOY: Ibid., 118

  46 ALL LEFT HIM FEELING INEPT: WDY, 20–23.

  46 WITH THE COMING OF THE DEPRESSION: Joan Feynman-Weiner.

  46 TO THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM: Ibid., 31—32.

  46 THE RADIO HAD PENETRATED: “Modernistic Radios,” New York Times, 4 June 1933.

  46 HE REWIRED A PLUG: F-W, 105–7.

  46 HE FIXES RADIOS BY THINKING!: SYJ, 3.

  47 WHAT ARE YOU DOING?: F-W, 107–8; SYJ, 7–8.

  47 MERELY TO FIND A MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOK: Feynman 1965d, 10.

  47 IF A BOY NAMED MORRIE JACOBS: Feynman to Morris Jacobs, 27 January 1987, CIT.

  47 HE RECOGNIZED THE PLEASURE: Feynman 1965d, 11.

  48 SCHWINGER KNEW HOW TO FIND BOOKS: Schweber, forthcoming. 48 THE PHYSICAL REVIEW: Kevles 1987, 218.

  48 THAT YEAR HE CAREFULLY TYPED OUT: Julian Schwinger, interview, Bel Air, Calif.; Schwinger 1934. He later said (1983), he had been “parrot[ing] the wisdom of my elders, to be later rejected.”

  49 THEY AMAZED A DINNER PARTY: Marvin Goldberger, interview, Pasadena. 49 HE LONG RESENTED THE LOSS: F-W, 113; WDY, 33.

  MIT

  Among Feynman’s fellow students and fraternity brothers, T. A. Welton, Conyers Herring, John L. Joseph, Monarch L. Cutler, Leonard Mautner, Maurice A. Meyer, and Daniel Robbins contributed the most revealing interviews. Welton has set down his recollections of Feynman in a manuscript titled “Memories” (CIT), and the American Institute of Physics has the notebook in which he and Feynman developed their view of quantum mechanics. Feynman’s MIT transcript and some other academic records were preserved in his personal papers. The archives of MIT provided some correspondence and yearbooks. Joan Feynman made available her brother’s letters to her and her parents. Other important sources include: on physics at MIT, the memoirs of John C. Slater (1975) and Philip Morse (1977), and Schweber’s profile of Slater (1989); on the early development of American quantum physics, Kevles 1987, Schweber, forthcoming, and Sopka 1980; on the principle of least action. Lectures II-19, Park 1988, Gregory 1988, and QED; on anti-Semitism in science, Silberman 1985, Steinberg 1971, Lipset and Ladd 1971; Dobkowski 1979, and the remarkable correspondence between Feynman’s MIT professors and Harry D. Smyth (MIT and a confidential file at PUL).

  52 IN THAT CASE YOU ARE COMPLETELY LOST: Heisenberg 1971, 15–16.

  52 THE AMERICAN MIND: Menge 1932, 11.

  53 FEYNMAN CHANCED: F-W, 131.

  53 BUT THE DEPRESSION HAD FORCED: Kevles 1987, 250–51.

  53 NIGHTMARE: Ibid.

  53 FEEL THE CRAVING: Menge 1932, 10.

  53 DESPITE ANTI-SEMITIC MISGIVINGS: Rabi, for example, recalled Columbia’s reluctance in appointing him as its first Jew in 1929: “What happened in the American universities was [that] a department was in some sense like a club, very collegiate, family… and certainly the Jews were different, they didn’t fit in too well. “Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

  53 HE HAD BEEN ONE OF THE YOUNG AMERICANS: Slater 1975, 131.

  53 SLATER KEPT MAKING MINOR DISCOVERIES: Ibid., 130–35.

  54 I DO NOT LIKE MYSTIQUES: Slater, oral-history interview, AIP. Quoted in Schweber 1989, 53.

  54 HE DOES NOT ORDINARILY ARGUE: Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

  54 THEY STUDY CAREFULLY THE RESULTS: Ibid.

  55 ASSEMBLING A PHYSICS DEPARTMENT: Karl T. Compton, “An Adventure in Education,” New York Times, 15 September 1935.

  55 BARELY A DOZEN GRADUATE STUDENTS: Morse 1977, 125

  56 THE INSTRUCTORS TOLD THE STUDENTS: Slater and Frank 1933, v-vii.

  56 WHY DON’T YOU TRY BERNOULLI’S: F-W, 136

  56 THE FIRST DAY EVERYONE HAD TO FILL OUT: Welton 1983; F-W, 137. 56 COOPERATION IN THE STRUGGLE: Ibid.

  56 MR. FEYNMAN, HOW DID YOU: Ibid. Welton added that Feynman’s solutions were “always correct and frequently ingenious” and that “Stratton never entrusted his lecture to me or any other student.”

  57 A LIFEGUARD, SOME FEET UP THE BEACH: QED, 51–52.

  58 OUR FRIEND DIRAC, TOO: Quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

  58 THERE CANNOT BE ANY ATOMS: Descartes 1955, 264.

  59 AT THE SAME TIME: Ibid., 299.

  60 FEYNMAN WOULD RESORT TO INGENIOUS COMPUTATIONAL TRICKS: F-W, 139

  60 FEYNMAN HAD FIRST COME ON THE PRINCIPLE: Lectures, II-19.

  61 SEEMED TO FEYNMAN A MIRACLE: Ibid., II-19–2.

  61 IT SEEMS TO KNOW: Gregory 1988, 32–33.

  61 THIS IS NOT QUITE THE WAY: Park 1988, 250.

  61 IT IS NOT IN THE LITTLE DETAILS: Quoted in Jourdain 1913, 11.

  61 PARK PHRASED THE QUESTION: Park 1988, 252.

  62 LET NONE SAY THAT THE ENGINEER: The Tech, MIT, 1938, 275.

  62 BUT AFTER THEY HAVE CONQUERED: Ibid.

  62 ONE ENJOYED A WOOING PROCESS: SYJ, 17.

  62 THEIR FRATERNITY BROTHERS DROVE FEYNMAN: SYJ, 19; F-W, 200–201.

  63 OPPORTUNITIES TO HARASS FRESHMEN: Daniel Robbins, telephone interview.

  63 THE SECOND AND THIRD FLOORS: Maurice A. Meyer, telephone interview.

  63 SO WORRIED ABOUT THE OTHER SEX: SYJ, 18.

  63 COURSE NOTES TO BE HANDED DOWN: Michael Oppenheimer, interview, New York.

  64 DICK FELT HE GOT A GOOD BARGAIN: SYJ, 18.

  64 LONG HOURS AT THE RAYMORE-PLAYMORE: Robbins, interview.

  64 THE FEYNMANS LET HER PAINT A PARROT: Lewine, interview.

  64 SPARED DICK THE NECESSITY: SYJ, 18.

  64 ARLINE WATCHED UNHAPPILY: Meyer, interview.

  64 HIS SECOND PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE: F-W, 302 and 122.

  65 THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE IN AVIATION: WDY, 31.

  65 AT ONE OF THE FATEFUL MOMENTS: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 9 August 1945, PERS; Weisskopf, interview.

  66 THE INSTITUTE JUSTIFIED: F-W, 164 66 A PAIN IN THE NECK: Ibid.

  66 IN ONE COURSE HE RESORTED: He admitted it thirty years later, embarrassed—“I lost my moral sense for a while”—to a scholar taking oral history for a science archive. F-W, 164.

  66 WHY DIDN’T THE ENGLISH PROFESSORS: Ibid, 165.

  66 HE READ JOHN STUART MILL’S: F-L; SYJ, 30.

  66 HE READ THOMAS HUXLEY’S: F-W, 170–73.

  66 MEANWHILE IN PHYSICS ITSELF: “Subjects taken in physics at Mass. Institute of Technology,” typescript, PUL.

  67 WHOM ARLINE WAS READING: F-W, 165–66.

  67 HE KNEW ALL ABOUT IMPERFECTION: WDY, 29.

  67 PEOPLE LIKE DESCARTES WERE STUPID: F-W, 166.

  67 HE TOOK A STRIP OF PAPER: WDY, 29–30.

  68 IN THE DISCOVERY OF SECRET THINGS
: Gilbert, De Magnete (1600). 68 LIKE A PRIME MINISTER: F-W, 167.

  68 THE PRAGMATIC SLATER: Schweber 1989, 58.

  68 NOT FROM POSITIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS: Harvey, De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis (1628).

  68 UP IN HIS ROOM: F-W, 169–70.

  69 I WONDER WHY I WONDER WHY: Ibid., 170; F-L (SYJ, 33).

  69 A DISMAYED, DISORIENTED MOMENT: F-L.

  70 HE DID DEVELOP A RUDIMENTARY THEORY: SYJ, 36.

  70 HE SAT THROUGH LECTURES: Ibid., 32.

  70 SO MUCH STUFF IN THERE: F-W, 166.

  70 SPACE OF ITSELF AND TIME OF ITSELF: Quoted by Feynman in Lectures, I-17–8.

  72 A SMALL FABLE: Dirac 1971.

  72 MY WHOLE EFFORT IS TO DESTROY: Quoted in Park 1988, 318.

  73 OF COURSE QUITE ABSURD: DiraC 1971, 41.

  74 DURING A LATE EROTIC OUTBURST: Pais 1986, 251–52.

  74 THEY FILLED A NOTEBOOK: Feynman and Welton 1936–37.

  74 JUST AS SCHRÖDINGER HAD DONE: F-W, 146

  76 BOTH BOYS WERE WORRYING: Feynman and Welton 1936–37; F-W, 141.

  76 WELTON WOULD SET TO WORK: F-W, 210–11.

  77 THE CHUG-CHUG-DING-DING: Welton 1983; Welton, interview; F-W, 142–44.

  77 THEY WORKED OUT FASTER METHODS: F-W, 152–53.

  77 ALL I’VE DONE IS TAKE: Quoted in “Bright Flashes from a Mind of Marvel,” Washington Post, 6 January 1990.

  78 UTTER CERTAINTY: Heisenberg 1971, 11.

  78 MORE THAN THAT OF ALL MANKIND: Ibid., 10.

  78 FEYNMAN WANTED TO BE A SHOP MAN: F-W, 154–56; F-L.

  79 ENRICO FERMI MADE HIS OWN: Segrè 1980, 204–6; Rhodes 1987, 210–12.

  79 UNEXPECTEDLY, THE SLOW NEUTRONS: Enrico Fermi, “Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment,” in Weaver 1987, 2:74.

  79 FEYNMAN AND WELTON, JUNIORS: F-W, 162.

  80 THERE WAS JUST ONE ESSENTIAL TEXT: Bethe et al. 1986.

  80 THAT CLOUDS SCATTERED SUNLIGHT: F-W, 176.

  81 IT CAME JUST ONE STEP PAST: Lectures, I-32–8.

  81 ONE FOGGY DAY: F-W, 176.

  82 FEYNMAN’S FIRST PUBLISHED WORK: Vallarta and Feynman 1939.

  82 A PROVOCATIVE AND CLEVER IDEA: “Suppose we consider a particle sent into an element of volume dV of scattering matter in a direction given by the vector R. Let the probability of emerging in the direction R’ be given by a scattering function f(R,R’) per unit solid angle. Conversely a particle entering in the direction R’ will have a probability f(R’,R) of emerging in the direction R. Let us assume that the scatterer (magnetic field of the star) has the reciprocal property so that f(R,R’) = f(R’, R). In our case the property is satisfied provided the particle’s sign is reversed at the same time as its direction of motion. That is, the probability of electrons going by any route is equal to the probability of positrons going by the reverse route….” Ibid.