Stargazing Guy

– Richard P. Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 Feb 1988)

From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas — so maybe it’s time to get some more Feynman in our lives?

Credit: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-curious-mr-feynman/

The next few quotes will be related to his Nobel Prize.

This quote is from a statement (c. 1965), quoted in “An irreverent best-seller by Nobel laureate Richard Feynman gives nerds a good name“, People Magazine (22 July 1985).

He shared the prize with Japan’s Shinichiro Tomonaga and Julian Schwinger, then of Harvard, for work in quantum electrodynamics.

He was loath to spell out, in layman’s terms, why he won. “Hell, if I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel prize.” 

This is what the Nobel Prize webpage say on his work:

“Following the establishment of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, an initial relativistic theory was formulated for the interaction between charged particles and electromagnetic fields. This needed to be reformulated, however. In 1948 in particular, Richard Feynman contributed to creating a new quantum electrodynamics by introducing Feynman diagrams: graphic representations of various interactions between different particles. These diagrams facilitate the calculation of interaction probabilities.”

MLA style: Richard P. Feynman – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Sun. 31 Mar 2024. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1965/feynman/facts/

You can click here if you want to know more about quantum electrodynamics – and then come and explain it to me, please!

In the meantime, a quick gag:

Q: Why did the scientist install a knocker on his front door?
A: Because he wanted to win the no-bell prize!

More about his Nobel Prize win to follow.

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PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.

In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.

Remember, hope lives here.

Opening image credit: https://twitter.com/PrincetonGrad/status/936707860431597573

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