RICHARD FEYNMAN - PHYSICIST (1918-1988)

Richard Feynman was, in many respects, an eccentric and a free spirit.

ON MAY 11 in 1918, Richard P. Feynman was born in New York City. Feynman, with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He received his undergrad degree from MIT in 1939, and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1942. He worked at Los Alamos, then became a professor at Cornell from 1945-1950. Feynman became professor of theoretical physics at California Institute of Technology in 1950. When Physics World polled scientists asking them to rank the greatest physicists, Feynman was rated seventh, behind Galileo.

Feynman was a writer and personality, as well. His first popular book was Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. His academic classic was the 3-volume Lectures on Physics. His sister Joan once said: "If you wanted to have a good party, you had Richard there" (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 2001).

In What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988), Feynman described himself as "an avowed atheist" by his early youth. "I thought nature itself was so interesting that I didn't want it distorted (by miracle stories). And so I gradually came to disbelieve the whole religion."

Feynman was first treated for stomach cancer in 1978. He made headlines after being appointed to a commission investigating the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, when he figured out and demonstrated what went wrong with the O-rings.

“Start out understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong. . . . As soon as you do that, you start sliding down an edge which is hard to recover from. . . .”
[Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out] (1981)

Once we were driving in the midwest and we pulled into a McDonald's. Someone came up to me and asked me why I have Feynman diagrams all over my van. I replied, "Because I am Feynman!" The young man went, "Ahhhhh!"
[Richard P. Feynman]

Comments

[Stein]

These are all nice pin ups, but how about some really good ones.

Of the GREATS!

You know...Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc.

[Rev. Art]

Cute. I stopped by to peruse your blog. Typical religious zealot who fears Darwin negates the need of a supernatural hierarchy. I don't think he does, necessarily. I don't believe, but I know folks who accept Darwin and Jahweh without getting their panties all in a twist. You exhibit what is wrong with this country - a trend toward irrational pursuits, religion, fantasy, the paranormal, et al. As for the Commie dictators you listed, Stalin was an Orthodox seminarian; Pol Pot was a Buddhist; and you left out Hitler, another rabid Catholic. The profession of atheism by Marxist leaders is misleading, 'cuz they established the State as religion. There are some evil atheists, don't get me wrong, but there are far more bad guys among the followers of Jesus and Muhammad. Don't be a stranger...