May 11, 1918 – Birth of Richard Feynman, Nobel-Prize-Winning Physicist

Richard Feynman was an outstanding theoretical physicist, raconteur, musician, and teacher. Among his many other accomplishments, he introduced an ingenious schematic form of simple notations (now called Feynman Diagrams) to describe the complex behavior of subatomic particles. In 1965, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for work in quantum electrodynamics. He died of a rare form of cancer in 1988, but remains a popular cult figure for science lovers everywhere.

Feynman wrote a number of charming biographical books, in which he describes how he came to be a scientist. His father determined that if his first child were a boy, he would be a scientist. Instead of baby books, his father would read to him from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He would take him on walks through the woods and teach him about animal behavior and plant patterns. Instead of just playing ball, they would talk about the principles of inertia. Somehow it worked. Feyman grew up to be brilliant, funny, loving, and loveable.

Feynman made sure his sister developed scientifically as well. (She eventually also got a Ph.D. in physics.) When she was two (Feynman was eleven), he trained her to solve simple math problems, rewarding each correct answer by letting her tug on his hair while he made faces. By the time she was 5, Richard had hired her for 2 cents a week to assist him in the electronics lab he’d built in his room.

Most appealingly, no matter how much Feynman learned, he retained a sense of awe and wonder about how much we can never know. In one of his books he wrote:

Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers: you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this silence is that you have to know how to read music. For instance, the scientific article may say, ‘The radioactive phosphorus content of the cerebrum of the rat decreases to one- half in a period of two weeks.’ Now what does that mean?

It means that phosphorus that is in the brain of a rat—and also in mine, and yours—is not the same phosphorus as it was two weeks ago. It means the atoms that are in the brain are being replaced: the ones that were there before have gone away.

So what is this mind of ours: what are these atoms with consciousness? Last week’s potatoes! They now can remember what was going on in my mind a year ago—a mind which has long ago been replaced. To note that the thing I call my individuality is only a pattern or dance, that is what it means when one discovers how long it takes for the atoms of the brain to be replaced by other atoms. The atoms come into my brain, dance a dance, and then go out—there are always new atoms, but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday.”

‘What do You Care What Other People Think?’ Further Adventures of a Curious Character (1988)

There are many links on the web to Feynman’s quotes, lectures, videos featuring Feynman, and other fan sites. Happy Birthday, Richard Feynman! Your loss is still greatly felt around the world.