Book

Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988.

"Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" : adventures of a curious character / Richard P. Feynman as told to Ralph Leighton ; edited by Edward Hutchings.

New York : W.W. Norton, ©1985.

350 pages ; 22 cm

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. An artist, safecracker, practical joker and storyteller, Feynman's life was a series of combustible combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high intelligence, unquenchable curiosity and eternal skepticism. Over a period of years, Feynman's conversations with his friend Ralph Leighton were first taped and then set down as they appear here, little changed from their spoken form, giving a wise, funny, passionate and totally honest self-portrait of one of the greatest men of our age.

Feynman, Richard P. (Richard Phillips), 1918-1988.

Physicists -- United States -- Biography.

Science -- Humor.

Autobiographies.

Leighton, Ralph.

Hutchings, Edward.

Includes index.

pt. I. From Far Rockaway to MIT. He fixes radios by thinking! -- String beans -- Who stole the door? -- Latin or Italian? -- Always trying to escape -- The chief research chemist of the Metaplast Corporation -- pt. II. The Princeton years. "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" -- Meeeeeeeeeee! -- A map of the cat? -- Monster minds -- Mixing paints -- A different box of tools -- Mindreaders -- The amateur scientist -- pt. III. Feynman, the bomb, and the military. Fizzled fuses -- Testing bloodhounds -- Los Alamos from below -- Safecracker meets safecracker -- Uncle Sam doesn't need you! -- pt. IV. From Cornell to Caltech, with a touch of Brazil. The dignified professor -- Any questions? -- I want my dollar! -- You just ask them? -- Lucky numbers -- O Americano, outra vez! -- Man of a thousand tongues -- Certainly, Mr. Big! -- An offer you must refuse -- pt. V. The world of one physicist. Would you solve the Dirac equation? -- The 7 percent solution -- Thirteen times -- It sounds Greek to me! -- But is it art? -- Is electricity fire? -- Judging books by their covers -- Alfred Nobel's other mistake -- Bringing culture to the physicists -- Found out in Paris -- Altered states -- Cargo cult science.

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