Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

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Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman Page 71

by James Gleick


  accuracy of, 330, 348

  crisis in, 99–100, 226, 234, 239

  Dyson’s, 266–72, 377–78

  early, 48–49

  Feynman’s, 127–29, 146–48, 245–52, 258, 267–77, 311, 321, 380–81

  “partons” of, 394

  Schwinger’s, 251–52, 255–62, 266–69, 275–76, 321

  Tomonaga’s, 259–61

  Quantum Electrodynamics, 12

  quantum mechanics, 13, 55–56, 70–77, 88–89

  causality and, 7, 40, 70–72, 112, 243, 371

  chemistry and, 40, 87

  diffusion and, 174–75, 249

  exclusion principle, 6–7, 255, 258

  infinities in, 4, 49, 99–100, 231–32, 238

  Klein-Gordon equation, 74

  least action in, 121, 127–29, 131–32, 138–39, 147, 247–50

  mysteriousness of, 40, 44–45, 54, 70–71, 114,436–37

  philosophy and, 40, 70–72, 243–44, 371–72, 375

  probability in, 72–75, 88, 128, 132, 246–49, 275, 393–94, 433

  two-slit experiment, 247–48, 250, 366

  uncertainty and, 8, 70, 72–73, 75, 78, 89, 258, 321, 361, 429–30, 435

  wave-particle duality, 7, 18–19, 40, 54, 80, 250, 261–62

  quarks, 9, 390–96, 402–3, 432

  quasiparticles, 300–302

  Quine, W. V., 371

  Quintilian, 313

  Rabi, Isidor Isaac, 232, 233, 386

  anti-Semitism and, 53

  at Columbia, 232, 234, 251

  Feynman and, 144, 296

  at Pocono, 255

  at Radiation Laboratory, 91, 137, 141

  Schwinger and, 215–16, 243

  at Trinity, 154, 156

  radar, 91, 124, 136–38, 209, 216

  radiation resistance, 109–11, 114

  radiation science, 196–200

  radio, 17–19, 46–47

  ham, 282

  rainbow, 130, 434

  Ramanujan, Srinivasa, 238

  Rand, Sally, 41

  Reagan, Ronald W., 416

  reality, 38, 44–45, 101, 243–44, 375, 395

  Reichstag, 167

  relativity, 71, 99–100

  general, 42, 74–75, 115, 316, 329, 351—54

  popularization of, 42–43, 45, 429–30

  quantum electrodynamics and, 99–100

  renormalization, 239–40, 251–52, 259–62, 270, 282, 330, 377

  qualms over, 347–49, 378, 380

  Resnick, Judith, 415

  Reviews of Modern Physics, 80, 249

  Rhodes, Richard, 159

  Richter, Charles, 281–82

  Ride, Sally, 417

  Riordan, Michael, 389–90

  risk, 197, 427–28

  Ritz, Walter, 118–19

  Robertson, H. P., 130

  Roethke, Theodore, 412–13

  Rogers, Will, 281

  Rogers, William P., 416–17, 419–23, 426

  Rome, University of, 166

  Röntgen, Wilhelm, 99

  Rosen, Nathan, 216

  Rothstein, E. V., 412

  Royal Air Force, 236–37

  Rubáiyát (Omar Khayyám), 343

  Russell, Henry Norris, 115

  Ruth, Babe, 43–44, 327

  Rutherford, Ernest, 71

  S matrix, 267, 329

  safecracking, 15, 189–90

  Sakharov, Andrei, 297

  Salam, Abdus, 405, 431

  Salieri, Antonio, 322

  Salk, Jonas, 133

  samba, 286, 340

  Sands, Matthew, 343, 363

  Schein, Marcel, 304

  Schrieffer, Robert, 303

  Schrödinger, Erwin, 73–75, 88, 128, 232, 242, 246, 367

  cat, 243

  Schrödinger equation, 73, 88–89, 102, 129, 146–47, 174, 249, 301, 436

  Schweber, Silvan S., 348, 386–87

  Schwinger, Julian, 158, 215–16, 227, 243, 295, 309, 395

  childhood, 48–49

  early papers, 48–49

  Feynman and, 16, 49, 252, 377–79

  Nobel Prize, 377–79

  at Pocono, 5–6, 255–58

  quantum electrodynamics and, 239, 241, 251–53, 255–63, 266–69, 271, 275–77, 279–80, 321, 347, 367

  at Shelter Island, 233–34

  students, 276–77, 378

  science

  as career, 52–53

  creativity in, 314, 321, 324–26, 409

  experimental attitude, 14–16, 19

  explanation in, 29

  laws of, 13–14

  military financing of, 4, 209–11, 294–95, 385

  religion and, 31–32, 58–60

  Science, 145

  science fiction, 121, 235, 255, 299

  Scientific American, 104, 414

  scientists

  aging of, 347

  as children, 17, 19

  as craftsmen, 321–22

  as nerds, 44, 63

  patriotism of, 137

  public view of, 40–42, 44, 203

  Scobee, Francis, 415–16

  Segrè, Emilio, 198–99

  seismology, 281–82

  Selective Service, 222–25, 297

  Serber, Robert, 163, 168–69, 173

  sexual politics, 287–91,411–12

  Shaaray Tefila, 23

  Shakespeare, William, 313, 314, 317, 325, 328

  Shelter Island conference (1948), 232–34

  Shockley, William, 85, 137

  Siegel, Carl Ludwig, 98

  simplicity, see nature, simplicity in

  Sitwell, Edith, 106

  Slater, John C, 40, 53–55, 67–68, 83–91, 94, 301, 366

  Slotin, Louis, 196–97

  Slotnick, Murray, 270–72, 282

  Smith, Lloyd, 263

  Smith, Michael, 415

  Smyth, Harry D., 84, 137, 140, 144, 149–50, 164, 227

  Snow, C. P., 9–10

  solid-state physics, see physics

  Sommerfeld, Arnold, 166

  South Pacific, 308

  Soviet Academy of Science, 297–98

  Soviet Union, 6, 191, 278, 296–98, 340–41

  space, generalized conceptions of, 76, 507

  space shuttle, see Challenger

  space travel, 218–19, 340–41, 374, 414–28

  space-time, 7, 74, 109, 124, 152, 246–49, 255, 272–75, 355, 351, 354

  world-lines in, 121–22

  spectroscopy, 55, 85, 254

  Spellbound (Hitchcock), 225

  spin, 75, 80, 99, 228–51, 240, 242, 282, 350, 356–57, 375, 399

  Sputnik, 340–41,414

  Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), 391–95

  Stanwyck, Barbara, 44

  State Department, United States, 285, 298, 341

  Stone, Arthur, 104

  strangeness, 509–10, 360

  Stratton, Julius A., 55, 55–56

  Strauss, Lewis L., 295–96

  streptomycin, 195–96

  string theory, 455

  stroboscope, 77

  strong interaction, 507, 509–10, 350, 354, 392–95

  Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn), 521–22

  Stückelberg, Ernst, 272–75

  SU(3), 387, 389–91, 455–54

  Sudarshan, E. C. C, 357–58, 411

  superconductivity, 299–505

  superfluidity, 9, 298–505

  Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, 11, 409–11

  surface tension, 501

  Sykes, Christopher, 369

  symmetry, 258, 255, 506, 509–10, 361

  breaking, 389–90, 452, 455

  isospin, 506

  left-right, 506, 350–55, 358–40

  spin, 229

  time, 111–14, 118–20

  Szilard, Leo, 156, 160

  technology

  attitudes toward, 41, 257, 406, 416

  influence on theory, 41, 71, 108, 124

  telescope, 27, 77, 120, 281, 284–85

&
nbsp; television, 45, 47, 520, 346, 372, 416

  Teller, Edward, 255, 255

  cold war and, 341

  Feynman and, 6–7, 157, 224–25

  Hungarian conspiracy, 136

  hydrogen bomb, 204, 258, 296

  at Los Alamos, 166–69, 175, 197–98

  Oppenheimer and, 166–69, 296

  Schwinger and, 216

  at Trinity, 153

  Tetrode, H., 120

  Theory of Fundamental Processes, 12

  thermodynamics, 88, 126, 174, 355, 361, 365

  Thinking Machines Corporation, 454

  Thomson, J. J., 42–45

  Thome, Kip S., 404

  thought experiment, 107–8, 245, 247–49, 355

  3M Company, 406

  Three Mile Island nuclear accident, 416

  time

  philosophy of, 109, 125–28

  reversibility, 7, 82, 108–12, 118–20, 125, 255–54, 258, 272–74

  Time, 379

  Time-Life Films, 407

  Tiomno, Jayme, 278

  Tokyo University, 260

  Tolman, Richard, 144

  Tomonaga, Shin’ichiro, 259–61, 267, 377–579

  Townsend Harris High School (New York), 48

  Treasure Island (Stevenson), 65

  triboluminescence, 285

  Trinity test, 6, 65–66, 155–57, 205

  Truman, Harry S, 209

  tuberculosis, 155–55, 149–50, 194–96

  Tübingen, University of, 167

  Tuck, Helen, 385

  Tuckerman, Bryant, 104

  Tukey, John, 104–5

  turbulence, 9, 298, 502, 450–51, 454, 436

  UCLA Medical Center, 405, 457–58

  UFO’s, 375–74

  Ulam, Stanislaw, 155, 168, 437

  uncertainty

  in computation, 175–74

  of knowledge, 5, 15, 29, 67, 126, 195, 285, 371–75, 438

  in quantum mechanics, 8, 70, 72–73, 75, 78, 89, 258, 321, 361, 429–30, 435

  Union Carbide, 141

  unitarity, 7, 258

  United Nations, 339

  uranium

  atom, 94–95

  bomb design, 170–72

  critical mass calculations, 168–69

  diffusion in, 169–73

  hydride, 173

  isotope separation, 136, 139–46

  practical uses, 218–19

  predetonation of, 6, 168–69

  radiation danger, 195–200

  reactors, 157–58, 161–65

  Urey, Harold, 144

  V-A theory, see weak interaction

  Vallarta, Manuel S., 81–82, 215

  Verne, Jules, 235

  Vinogradov, I. M., 236

  visualization, see physics, visualization in

  V-particles, 309–10

  Watson, James, 349, 386–87

  wave-particle duality, 7, 18–19, 40, 54, 80, 250, 261–62

  weak interaction, 9, 309–10, 330, 334–39

  Wegener, Alfred, 321

  Weinberg, Steven, 101, 348, 404, 431, 435

  Weiner, Charles, 409

  Weisskopf, Victor, 66–67, 167–69, 175, 185, 203, 232, 241, 251–53, 309, 330, 334, 352, 382–83, 403

  Welton, Theodore (T. A.), 51–52, 56, 73–79, 169–71, 173, 183, 228, 325–26

  Wentzel, Gregor, 272

  Weyl, Hermann, 18, 52

  What Do You Care What Other People Think?, 11

  Wheeler, John Archibald, 93–96, 102, 124–25, 141, 146, 233, 255, 258–59

  Feynman and, 96, 98–99, 106, 108, 116, 130, 147, 148, 250, 362, 380

  fission and, 94–95, 139

  Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics, 110–15, 117–29, 147, 215, 246, 253–54, 278, 333, 381

  Whitehead, Alfred North, 366

  Whitman, Walt, 319

  Whitney, Eli, 319

  Wiener, Norbert, 172

  Wigner, Eugene, 53, 94, 96, 114–15, 116, 117, 130–31, 136, 137, 144, 146, 148, 184

  Wilbur, Richard, 37

  Williams, Ted, 327

  Wills, A. P., 56

  Wilson, Robert R.

  at Cornell, 226–27

  Feynman and, 130, 139–40

  isotron, 141–44, 157–58, 160

  in Manhattan Project, 136–37, 156, 208

  on modern physics, 209–10

  Wheeler and, 93–94

  Wisconsin State Journal, 43–44

  Wolfe, Thomas, 84

  Wolfe, Tom, 407

  World’s Fair, 40–41, 260

  World War I, 77

  World War II, 3–4, 84, 128, 237–38

  aftermath, 208

  scientists’ preparations for, 136–38

  Wu, Chien Shiung, 334–35, 337

  W. W. Norton and Company, 411

  X rays, 18, 55, 99, 133

  Yale lock, 15, 188, 297

  Yale University, 46, 97, 225, 300–301, 308

  Yang, Chen Ning, 333–34, 336–37

  Yang-Mills theory, 329, 353, 387

  Yeager, Chuck, 417

  Yukawa, Hideki, 259–60, 282

  Zeitschrift für Physik, 120

  Zeleny, John, 44–45

  Ziman, John, 371

  Zweig, George, 390–91, 394, 396

  ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

  TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS

  Illustration 1—courtesy of the American Institute of Physics; Illustration 2—Robin Brickman; Illustration 3—Gardner 1989; Illustration 4—Robin Brickman; Illustration 5—Wheeler and Feynman 1945; Illustration 6—courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology; Illustration 7—Victor Weisskopf and E. Wigner, “Berechnung der natürlichen Linienbreite auf Grund der Diracschen Lichttheorie,” Zeitschrift für Physik 63 (1930); Illustration 8—Robin Brickman; Illustration 9—Robin Brickman; Illustration 10—Dyson 1949a; Illustration 11—Stückelberg 1941; Illustration 12—Feynman 1949b; Illustration 13—Feynman 1949b; Illustration 14—Cvitanović 1983; Illustration 15—Feynman 1985a.

  PHOTOGRAPHS

  Image 1—courtesy Joan Feynman; Image 2, top—courtesy Joan Feynman; Image 3, bottom—courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 4—courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 5—Los Alamos Scientific Library, courtesy AIP Niels Bohr Library; Image 6—Los Alamos Scientific Library, courtesy AIP Niels Bohr Library; Image 7, top—S. A. Goudsmit, courtesy AIP Niels Bohr Library; Image 8, bottom—AIP Niels Bohr Library; Image 9, top—AIP Niels Bohr Library, Marshak Collection; Image 10, bottom—AIP Niels Bohr Library, Physics Today Collection; Image 11, top—Richard Hartt Photography, courtesy of Caltech; Image 12, bottom—AIP Niels Bohr Library

  Image 13, top—AIP Niels Bohr Library, Physics Today Collection; Image 14, bottom—Joe Munroe, courtesy of Caltech; Image 15—courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology; Image 16, top—UPI/Bettmann; Image 17, bottom—courtesy Gweneth Feynman; Image 18-19, top and bottom—courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 20, top—courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 21, bottom—Consulate General of Japan, N.Y., courtesy AIP Niels Bohr Library; Image 22, top—courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 23, bottom—Robert Walker, courtesy Michelle Feynman; Image 24-25, top and bottom—courtesy of Caltech; Image 26—UPI/Bettmann.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

  British Broadcasting Corporation: Excerpt from” Fun to Imagine,” an interview between Richard Feynman and Christopher Sykes as broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1983. Used by permission.
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  David Higham Associates: Four lines from “Tattered Serenade,” from Collected Poems by Edith Sitwell, published by Macmillan London. Reprinted by permission of David Higham Associates.

  copyright © 1992 by James Gleick

  cover design by Milan Bozic

  cover image courtesy of the Archives, California Institute of Technology

  ISBN: 978-1-4532-1046-8

  This edition published in 2011 by Open Road Integrated Media

  180 Varick Street

  New York, NY 10014

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