Genius

by James Gleick

  150 BUT JUST A FEW DAYS LATER: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, “Why I want to get married,” June 1942, PERS.

  150 IN NO TIME FLAT: Arline Greenbaum to Feynman, June 1942, PERS.

  151 SHE WALKED DOWN: Jules Greenbaum, telephone interview.

  151 THEY MARRIED IN A CITY OFFICE: WDY, 42–43.

  151 FEARFUL OF CONTAGION: “I knew not to kiss her… because the disease, I was afraid to catch it” (F-L); by contrast, the edited version, in SYJ, 43, says that Feynman, “bashful,” kissed Arline on the cheek.

  LOS ALAMOS

  I did not seek the security clearance necessary to make direct use of the archives of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; however, the archives eventually provided a body of declassified material, including the notebook Feynman began keeping in his first days on the site, portions of his personnel record, and many technical documents—critical-mass calculations, analyses of computing issues, and notes and diagrams from Feynman’s inspections of the Oak Ridge plant. Lillian Hoddeson and Gordon Baym shared their interview with Feynman about many of his classified notes. Also declassified is Feynman’s manuscript for the account of the theoretical-physics division in what became the Smyth report, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, and a related correspondence between Smyth, Oppenheimer, and Groves. Mary D. Lee had preserved a copy of Feynman’s 9 August 1945 letter to his mother, describing the Trinity test. Feynman had saved Arline’s personal papers, including their correspondence, her correspondence with her family, and other items. Much has been written about the Manhattan Project and the scientists who participated in it. Still, one or two things may remain to be said. Many individual memoirs are available. The best overall history is Richard Rhodes’s Making of the Atomic Bomb. Hawkins et al. 1983 is extremely useful for its technical detail. If there was ever a time when eyewitness accounts could be obtained uncontaminated by hindsight and by many previous tellings, it is long past. I reinterviewed some participants and friends of Feynman anyway (Bethe, Weisskopf, Wilson, Olum, Welton, Rose Bethe, Philip Morrison, Robert Bacher, Robert Christy,

  Robert Walker, Dorothy Walker). Nicholas Metropolis expanded on his published recollections of the laboratory’s nascent computer science. Other sources on computation include Alt 1972, Asprey 1990, Bashe et al. 1986, Goldstine 1972, Nash 1990, and Williams 1985. Feynman retold his best stories in a talk (1975) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The tone of his letters in 1945–45 is very different, and I have relied most heavily on these.

  153 HE SWEATED: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 9 August 1945, PERS.

  153 THEN, SUDDENLY, MUSIC: Ibid.; Weisskopf, interview. But one of the oddities in the memories of that moment is how many different scientists heard different music. James W. Kunetka, for example, (1979) heard “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

  154 MINUS THIRTY MINUTES: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 9 August 1945.

  154 AND THEN, WITHOUT A SOUND: Frisch 1979, 164.

  154 IT BLASTED; IT POUNCED: Talk at Boston Institute for Religious and Social Studies, 3 January 1946. In Rabi 1970, 138–39.

  155 WHAT WAS THAT?: Peierls 1985, 202; Feynman 1975, 131. The correspondent was William L. Laurence. Eventually he came to terms with the sound he heard: “Then out of the great silence came a mighty thunder … the blast from thousands of blockbusters going off simultaneously … the big boom … earthquake … the first cry of a newborn world.” Laurence 1959, 117.

  155 ENRICO FERMI, CLOSER TO THE BLAST: E.g., Kunetka 1979, 169.

  155 ANOTHER PHYSICIST THOUGHT FEYNMAN: Jette 1977, 105.

  155 NOW HE HAD BEEN DRIVEN SO LOW: Frisch 1979, 155.

  156 A CHILL, WHICH WAS NOT THE MORNING COLD: Quoted in Rhodes 1987, 675.

  156 IT’S A TERRIBLE THING THAT WE MADE: SYJ, 118.

  156 WE JUMPED UP AND DOWN: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 9 August 1945.

  157 IT IS A WONDERFUL SIGHT: Ibid.

  157 WE BECAME THEN: R. Wilson 1972, 475.

  157 HAVE THEM DESCRIBE TO YOU: F-W, 328; Wilson, interview.

  157 HE DID GATHER INFORMATION: F-W, 329.

  157 WE ALL CAME TO MEET THIS BRASH CHAMPION: Morrison 1988, 42; also Morrison, oral-history interview, 7 February 1967, AIP, 34: “He was already heralded as this very clever fellow from Princeton who knew everything. And he did know everything, you know.”

  157 FEYNMAN SAW THAT THE PROBLEM: F-W, 330.

  158 SCHWINGER, WHO WAS AMBIDEXTROUS: Bernard Feld, quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

  158 SOMEDAY WHEN THEY MAKE A MOVING PICTURE: F-W, 332; Olum, interview.

  159 OPPENHEIMER’S FORMULA: Peierls, quoted in Heilbron and Seidel 1989, 256. 159 A PHYSICS OF BANK SHOTS: Rhodes 1987, 149.

  159 WHY DON’T YOU HAVE FISH: Peierls 1985, 190.

  159 HE CALLED LONG-DISTANCE: F-W, 337.

  160 NOBODY COULD THINK STRAIGHT: Davis 1968, 163.

  160 THE STATE OF SECRECY WAS SUCH: F-W, 332.

  160 FEYNMAN’S CONTRARIETY WARRED: Feynman 1975, 108.

  160 SHE HAD BEGGED RICHARD: Arline Feynman to Feynman, 26 March 1943, PERS.

  160 ARLINE CRIED NIGHT AFTER NIGHT: Ibid. and Arline Feynman to Feynman, 19 March 1943, PERS.

  161 YET ONE POSSIBILITY WAS PLAYING ITSELF OUT: F-H, 5.

  161 AT FIRST THE ONLY TELEPHONE LINK: John H. Manley, “A New Laboratory Is Born,” in Badash et al. 1980, 31.

  161 WATER BOILER: Hawkins et al. 1983, 104–5; F-H, 4–6.

  162 A TABLE BEHIND A HEAVY CONCRETE WALL: Groueff 1967, 210.

  162 THE DRIVER’S LICENSE OF A NAMELESS ENGINEER: State of New Mexico Operator’s License no. 185, 1944, PERS.

  162 WELCOME TO LOS ALAMOS: Frisch 1979, 150.

  163 TALKS ARE NOT NECESSARILY ON THINGS: Notebook, “A-83–002 7–7,” LANL.

  163 REFLECT NEUTRONS … KEEP BOMB IN: Ibid.

  164 MOST OF WHAT WAS TO BE DONE: Feynman 1944.

  164 THE GHOSTWRITER WAS FEYNMAN: Smyth to Oppenheimer, 1 February 1945, and Oppenheimer to Smyth, 14 April 1945, LANL.

  164 FEYNMAN, GIVING SMYTH A TOUR: SYJ, 118; Groueff 1967, 326.

  164 A REQUEST FOR OSMIUM: Groueff 1967, 326.

  164 THE FIRST DOT OF PLUTONIUM: Hawkins et al. 1983, 72.

  165 LISTED THE MAIN QUESTIONS: Feynman 1944. Feynman’s references to tamper materials, along with some other sensitive technical details, were deleted from the report as published.

  165 WHEN THEY HEARD THAT LAUGH: E.g., Joseph O. Hirschfelder, “Scientific-Technological Miracle at Los Alamos,” in Badash et al. 1980, 81.

  165 BETHE AND FEYNMAN—STRANGE PAIR: Frisch 1979, 154.

  165 YOU’RE CRAZY: F-W, 339; Bethe, interview; Groueff 1967, 205.

  166 IF FEYNMAN SAYS IT THREE TIMES: Schweber, forthcoming.

  166 He had worked on: Groueff 1967, 207.

  166 A WESTERN UNION KIDDIEGRAM: Rhodes 1987, 416.

  166 BETHE HAD LEARNED HIS PHYSICS: Bernstein 1980, 29.

  166 AT ROME: L. Fermi 1954, 217.

  166 LIGHTNESS OF APPROACH: Bernstein 1980, 31.

  168 BETHE LEFT THE INITIAL LECTURES: F-H, 40; Bethe, interview.

  168 THE DANGEROUS PRACTICALITIES: Hawkins et al. 1983, 13.

  168 FEYNMAN SPENT A LONG TIME TήINKING: F-H, 12–13.

  168 BRANCHING-PROCESSES THEORY: Ulam 1976, 153; Harris 1963; David Hawkins, “The Spirit of Play,” in Cooper 1989.

  169 HE ARRIVED AT A PRACTICAL METHOD: Bethe, interview. 169 BEGAN TO LOVE HANS BETHE: F-W, 409–10.

  169 HE HAD INVITED ONE OF HIS MIT FRATERNITY FRIENDS: Feynman to Daniel Robbins, 24 June 1942, PERS.

  169 HE WOULD BE PARTLY OUT OF THE RUSH: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 24 June 1943, PERS.

  169 WHEN HE WAS INVITED TO MEET A STRANGER: Welton 1983, 7.

  170 DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING HERE?: Ibid.

  170 IT STINKS: Davis 1968, 215.

  170 AS WELTON LISTENED: Welton, interview.

  170 HE WAS AMUSED AND IMPRESSED: Welton 1983, 8–9; Welton, interview.

  171 WELTON BECAME THE FOURTH
PHYSICIST: Along with Frederick Reines, Julius Ashkin, and Richard Ehrlich.

  171 DEFINITELY UNGENTLE HUMOR: Welton 1983, 9.

  171 ALL RIGHT, PENCILS: F-H, 42–43.

  172 BY DEFINITION, AT CRITICAL MASS: Hawkins et al. 1983, 77.

  172 FOR A SPHERICAL BOMB: Welton 1983, 11; Welton, interview.

  173 BETHE HAD TOLD THEM: Bethe, interview; F-H, 23.

  173 WHEN THE LOS ALAMOS METALLURGISTS: Hawkins et al. 1983, 139.

  173 IT PUSHED THE THEORISTS PAST THE LIMITS: Welton 1983, 13.

  173 FEYNMAN SOLVED THAT PROBLEM: Feynman and Welton 1947, a book-length report, draws together the chief findings of Feynman and his group on critical-mass calculations and neutron scattering. Feynman’s own contribution to the version of the problem in which neutrons are assumed to have a single characteristic velocity—a practical simplification of methods developed by others— appears in Feynman 1946b.

  173 THE EXPERIENCE OF ACTUAL COMPUTATION: F-H, 23–24.

  173 AS HE DROVE THE MEN: Welton 1983, 14.

  173 THAT SEEMED AN IMPOSSIBLE LEAP: Ashkin, Ehrlich, and Feynman 1944. Welton recalled wryly (1983, 14): “Only a short period of reflection was … required before Feynman announced that we were going to take the accumulated computational results from T-2. put them through the meat grinder, season them with some further insights (yet to be produced) and extrude this mixture as a handy interpolation-extrapolation formula.”

  174 UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT BE EXPECTED: Feynman 19466, 3.

  174 UNFORTUNATELY THE FIGURES CONTAINED: Ashkin, Ehrlich, and Feynman 1944, 4.

  174 THESE METHODS ARE NOT EXACT: Feynman and Welton 1947, 6. 174 AN INTERESTING THEOREM WAS FOUND: Feynman 1946b, 3.

  174 IN ALL CASES OF INTEREST: Feynman and Welton 1947, 6.

  175 BETHE’S DEPUTY, WEISSKOPF: Weisskopf, oral-history interview, 31, AIP.

  176 HE TOLD THEM HE COULD SPOT: F-H, 18.

  176 WELL, FOUR HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES AGO: Nicholas Metropolis, interview, Los Alamos, N.M.

  176 YOU KNOW HOW IT IS WITH DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME: Morrison 1988, 42.

  177 YOU WANT TO KNOW EXACTLY?: Feynman 1975, 109.

  177 THAT’S 1.35: F-H, 41.

  178 ALL RIGHT. IT’S PI TO THE FOURTH: Ibid., 39.

  178 THEN PAUL OLUM SPOKE UP: Olum, interview; F-L for SYJ, 176.

  178 SIMILARLY, WORKING WITH BETHE: Bethe, interview.

  179 THEY WERE RARELY USED: Metropolis and Nelson 1982, 348–49.

  180 LET’S LEARN ABOUT THESE DAMNED THINGS: Metropolis, interview.

  180 THEY SPENT HOURS TAKING APART: Bethe, interview; Metropolis 1990, 237; Metropolis and Nelson 1982, 349.

  180 ESCALATION OF THE COMPUTATION EFFORT: Metropolis and Nelson 1982, 350.

  181 SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL WERE THEY: Weisskopf 1991, 134.

  181 EVEN BEFORE THE IBM MACHINES ARRIVED: F-W, 362–63; Brode 1960; Feynman 1975, 125.

  182 HE LEFT FEYNMAN WITH TWO ENDURING MEMORIES: Feynman 1975, 129.

  182 FEYNMAN THOUGHT AT FIRST: F-H, 55–56: “We discovered a very annoying thing that we didn’t understand…. When we set up the differential equation, we solved it numerically and the numbers seemed to come out irregularly. Then we would check and it would be the same thing…. The points would sort of wiggle around irregularly, and [von Neumann] explained that that was correct, that was all right, that was very interesting…. And there was nothing we could do about it. We just had to live with it, and we did…. We were terribly surprised by the fact that we would do the numbers over again, and it was the same crazy irregularities.”

  182 EACH TIME IT IS TURNED ON. T. Reid 1984, 14; Alt 1972, 693; Metropolis and Nelson 1982, 352.

  182 SOME INTERESTING PROPERTIES OF NUMBERS: The lecture later became an element of his course at Cornell in mathematical methods and then, refined once again, became a remarkable set piece in his Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 29 February 1944; Lectures, I-22.

  182 ALL THE MIGHTY MINDS: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 29 February 1944.

  184 HE IS BY ALL ODDS THE MOST BRILLIANT: Oppenheimer to Birge, 4 November 1943, in Smith and Weiner 1980, 269.

  184 HE IS A SECOND DIRAC: Oppenheimer to Birge, November 4 1943, in Smith and Weiner 1980, 269.

  184 SHE LAUGHED, ASKING: Arline Feynman to Lucille and Melville Feynman, 28 June 1943; F-L for SYJ, 46.

  185 ONCE, IN A FANCIFUL CONVERSATION: Moss 1987, 68. 185 A PIONEER PEOPLE STARTING A NEW TOWN: Brode 1960, 7.

  185 THE MOST EXCLUSIVE CLUB IN THE WORLD: James Tuck, quoted in Davis 1968, 184.

  185 WHAT EXACTLY IS SQUARE: Tuck, quoted in Brode 1960, 7.

  185 ONE PARTY FEATURED AN ORIGINAL BALLET: Brode 1960, 6.

  186 CODES, CIPHERS OR ANY FORM OF SECRET WRITING: Reprinted in Jette 1977, 130.

  186 IT’S VERY DIFFICULT WRITING: Feynman 1975, 112.

  187 RICHARD AND ARLINE TALKED ABOUT: Ibid.

  187 THERE ARE CAPTAINS: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 10 December 1943.

  187 I EXPLAINED IT TO HIM: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 8 March 1945.

  187 THE SECURITY STAFF TOLERATED THEM: Hirschfelder, in Badash et al. 1980, 79.

  187 THE NEW DISPENSER STRUCK FEYNMAN: Olum, interview.

  187 HE HAD GOT SO DRUNK: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 9 May 1945, PERS.

  188 MORALLER AND MORALLER: Ibid.

  188 TWO MEN ARRIVED: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 4 April 1945, PERS.

  188 BECAUSE I LIKE PUZZLES SO MUCH: Ibid.

  188 THAT ONE INSIGHT: SYJ, 124.

  189 THE LOS ALAMOS PHYSICISTS: E.g., Frisch 1979, 154.

  189 I OPENED THE SAFES: F-L for SYJ, 121–22.

  189 THIS LAST INSIGHT ALONE: SYJ, 133.

  189 BY FIDDLING WITH HIS OWN SAFE: Ibid., 124–25.

  190 FEYNMAN REVELED IN THE CLOUDS: Feynman to Lucille Feynman, 10 December 1943, PERS.

  190 SEE, I’M GETTING AN AESTHETIC SENSE: Ibid.

  191 NOT CERTAIN WHETHER THIS TIME: Ian McEwan, The Innocent (New York: Dou-bleday, 1990), 85.

  191 HE WOULD SIT IN A CROUP: F-W, 317.

  191 HE FOUND A WAY: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 3 April 1945, PERS.

  191 YOU ARE A STRONG AND BEAUTIFUL WOMAN: Ibid.

  192 DON’T GET SCARED THO: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 24 April 1945.

  192 YOU’RE NEVER THAT: Arline Feynman to Feynman, February 1945.

  192 THE SCIENTISTS WERE IN AN UPROAR: R. Wilson 1974, 160.

  193 I DO NOT KNOW—ALTHOUGH THERE ARE THOSE: Cohn 1943, 56–57; Arline Feynman, handwritten notes, PERS.

  193 DARLING I’M BEGINNING: Arline Feynman to Feynman, 16 January 1945.

  193 SHE REMINDED HIM OF THE FUTURE: Arline Feynman to Feynman, 17 January 1945.

  194 WE HAVE TO FIGHT HARD: Ibid.

  194 DRINK SOME MILK: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 2 May 1945, PERS.

  194 HER WEIGHT HAD FALLEN: Arline Feynman, notebook of medical records and expenses, PERS.

  194 YOU ARE A NICE GIRL: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 2 May 1945.

  194 TIME PASSES FAST: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 19 April 1945, PERS.

  194 HE HAD HEARD ABOUT A NEW DRUG: Feynman to Richard Gubner, draft, n.d:, and Gubner to Feynman, 29 August 1944 and 14 November 1944, PERS.

  194 JOAN WAS DAZZLED: Joan Feynman to Arline Feynman, 29 April 1945, PERS.

  195 HE THOUGHT HE SAW SYMPTOMS: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 18 May 1945.

  195 HAVE IT DONE BY A SPECIALIST: Henry Barenblatt to Arline Feynman, 19 April 1945 and 23 April 1945, PERS.

  195 A DOCTOR AT LOS ALAMOS TOLD RICHARD: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 3 May 1945.

  195 THE SAME DOCTOR: Ibid.

  195 PS. 59-TO-BE: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 15 May 1945.

  195 HE DRIFTED THROUGH THE PAGES: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 17 May 1945.

  195 KEEP HANGING ON: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 9 May 1945.

  195 ENTIRE NATION CELEBRATES: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 10 May 1945.

  195 AT THE MAYO CLINIC: Waksman 1964, 127–28.
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  196 THE DOCTOR WHO FIRST ISOLATED: Ibid., 115–18.

  196 WORKERS HANDLING PLUTONIUM: Hawkins et al. 1983, 163–64.

  196 ONE MAN, HARRY DAGHLIAN: L. Fermi 1980, 99; de Hoffman 1974, 166–67; Frisch 1979, 159–60.

  197 FEYNMAN HIMSELF PROPOSED A SAFER EXPERIMENT: Hawkins et al. 1983, 89.

  197 AT TELLER’S REQUEST: E. Teller to R. F. Bacher, 27 March 1944, LANL.

  198 HE BECAME RESPONSIBLE FOR CALCULATING: E.g., K. T. Bainbridge to Members of Committee on Fabrication and Assembly of Active Materials, 20 July 1944 and 5 September 1944, LANL.

  198 IT IS EXPECTED THAT A CONSIDERABLE FRACTION: Bethe to Oppenheimer, 8 November 1944, and Bethe to Bacher, 3 January 1945, LANL; Robert F. Bacher, interview, Santa Barbara, Calif.

  198 COMPLETE AUTHORITY: Bethe to Oppenheimer, 26 January 1945, LANL.

  198 DEAR SIR, AT THE PRESENT TIME: J. L. Patterson to Major W. E. Kelley, 19 September 1944, and W. E. Kelley to Feynman, 21 September 1944, LANL.

  198 AS SECRE HAD DISCOVERED: Feynman 1975, 119–21.

  198 FEYNMAN BEGAN BY RETRACING: F-H, 33.

  199 HE REALIZED THAT THE PLANT WAS HEADED: F-W, 353–54.

  199 IN ANSWER TO THE EASTMAN SUPERINTENDENT’S QUESTION: Feynman to Major W. E. Kelley, 27 September 1944, LANL.

  199 DURING CENTRIFUGING SOME PECULIAR MOTION: Feynman to Colonel Arthur E. Peterson, 18 September 1945.

  199 IS CT-1 EMPTY WHEN WE DROP: Notes, LANL.

  199 HE ALSO INVENTED A PRACTICAL METHOD: Feynman 1945.

  199 A FEW PEOPLE, LONG AFTERWARD: E.g.: “Unknowingly, he saved my life and the lives of everyone at Oak Ridge in those challenging years …” Irwin H. Goodwin to Ralph Leighton, 8 December 1988.

  199 FEYNMAN’S FIRST VISIT TO OAK RIDGE: F-L for SYJ, 104.

  199 YOU SHOULD SAY: Los Alamos cannot accept: Feynman 1975, 122.

  200 HE HAD TO GROW UP FAST: Ibid.

  200 SOMETIME THAT SPRING IT STRUCK HIM: F-H, 14.

  200 HITCHHIKING BACK ONE SUNDAY NIGHT: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 24 May 1945, PERS.

  200 BUT THEY WERE KIND OF UGLY: Ibid.

  200 MY WIFE: I AM ALWAYS: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 6 June 1945, PERS.

  201 ONE NIGHT HE AWOKE: Feynman to Arline Feynman, 14 June 1945, PERS.

  201 THE CROUP’S PRODUCTIVITY HAD RISEN: Bethe, interview.

  201 HE HAD INVENTED A SYSTEM: F-W, 371–74.