The Biography of Richard Feynman

Author: (USA) Gleick (Gleick/J.) / Huang Xiaoling
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: He has a reputation for being dashing and charming, enjoying studying scientific problems in topless bars; he is a Nobel laureate, as well as an expert in safecracking and a conga drummer; among physicists, he is known for his disdain for philosophers, but physicists respect him because to them, he is a true philosopher; he is the great physicist who embodies both absurdity and genius—the Richard Feynman.
There are two kinds of geniuses in the world: one is the "ordinary" kind, and the other is the "magician-like" kind. If you and I were a few times smarter, we could match the ordinary kind, but the magician-like geniuses are different—how their minds work is something we can never fully understand, analyzing their thoughts is as difficult as trying to see how a magician performs his tricks. So, to outsiders, these magician-like geniuses appear as eccentric, absurd, and extraordinarily wise "geniuses." And Richard Feynman can be said to be one of the rare scientific geniuses in human history, appearing only once every thousand years. Feynman was hailed by many physicists as the greatest empirical physicist after Einstein in the last century. Even right after completing his graduate studies, he participated in the Manhattan Project, the U.S. program to develop the atomic bomb. Later, he taught at the California Institute of Technology for about 40 years and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. However, what made this physicist famous far beyond these achievements was much more than that. His conga drumming skills were so exceptional that he could even replace professional drummers on stage. He could sell his works like a true painter, and he was an expert in safecracking. He also enjoyed studying scientific problems in topless bars. In short, his talents, his humor, and his mischievous spontaneity made his life full of color. At the same time, his growth and achievements also contain many thought-provoking insights.