Scientists are perceived as absent-minded geniuses on some exalted plane
of existence, oblivious to their appearance or ordinary matters in
their quest to understand and explain the mysteries of nature. Perhaps
that is why their lives are more recounted in a biography than
autobiography - which most never got around to writing or wouldn't have
been very intelligible to laymen. But exceptions always exist - like
this gifted but very irreverent theoretical physicist - who learnt how
to crack safes, played bongo drums, frequented topless bars and
eventually won the Nobel Prize!
Richard P. Feynmann
(1918-88) was one of the most well-known scientists in his time,
described by a contemporary as "both genius and buffoon" as well as
figuring in the "holy trinity" of 20th century physics along with Albert
Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
In " 'Surely You're Joking, Mr.
Feynman!': Adventures of a Curious Character" (1985) and " 'What Do You
Care What Other People Think?': Further Adventures of a Curious
Character" (1988), he shares with us his life and illustrious career
which included participation in the Manhattan project (the American
development of the atom bomb during World War II - and this was where he
learnt to crack safes and give his colleagues near heart-attacks!) and
in the panel probing the Challenger space shuttle crash - whose cause he
simply explained by dropping a rubber clamp in ice water!
The
books also seek to explain his work in quantum mechanics, quantum
electrodynamics (for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1965), quantum
computing and the concept of nanotechnology as well as his role in
popularising physics, for a better education system fostering
understanding over rote learning, the importance of curiousity and
experimentation and the scientist's responsibility to society.
And, yes, Feynman did more than anyone else to break the stereotype of a scientist as a studious figure in thick glasses.
To
these ends were his varied escapades - described with relish and wit -
including getting into a fight in the men's room of a bar (earning a
black eye in the process), painting (including of nudes such as of Marie
Curie based on his contention that people don't think of the great
scientist as a woman but just focus on the radium part - which led him
to face the tough question how he got her to pose for him), playing an
instrument in a samba band in Brazil (in the carnival!), his insistence
on getting an actual dollar for transferring his patent to the
government, and experiments about consciousness - including with
hypnotism (in college) and latter with LSD and in a sensory deprivation
tank.
Feynman was however not the first famous scientist to
write about his life, being preceded by Einstein's (posthumous)
"Autobiographical Notes" (1979). But Einstein's is a
"near-autobiography" - a personal account, no doubt, by the greatest and
well-known scientist but focussing more about the development of his
ideas, and little about his private life or about the events of his
times.
Feynman's books - though, strictly speaking, not
autobiographies but collections of short and long autobiographical
anecdotes - are among the first in which a physicist talks about his
personal life, his childhood, his aspirations and motivations, his work
and plenty about his exploits, most of which verge on being
high-spirited pranks.
Their accessible nature owes something to
their genesis - they arose out of expansive, free-ranging conversations
Feynman, an enthusiastic drummer, had with his friend and drumming
partner, Ralph Leighton. Leighton, the son of Caltech physicist and
Feynman's close personal friend Robert Leighton, recorded the narration,
releasing some as The Feynman Tapes - which became the basis for both
the books.
The first book's question arises out of an incident
involving the newly-arrived, socially-inept Feynman at a tea party at
Princeton. It was the response by the dean's wife, who asking Feynman if
he wanted cream or lemon in his tea, was told "both". Feynman says he
learnt this was an indication he had made a social gaffe! But it didn't
stop him ever in his life - even getting an argument with a princess at a
Nobel award dinner who said he couldn't talk about physics since no one
there knew about it.
The second book's question owes from the
line his first wife Arline Greenbaum (whom he married despite knowing
she was dying of TB) used to convince him to do her bidding.
It is these touches which reveal scientists are no less human!
(01.02.2015
- Vikas Datta is an associate editor at IANS. The views expressed are
personal. He can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
