“We scientists are clever — too clever — are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it!.” (This is a year of Feynman – week 22 of 52)

– 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/

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Taken from a note (c. 1945), quoted in Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1992) by James Gleick, p. 204

A small extract from the official report on the development of the atomic bomb, Feynman concluded, under the heading ‘skill and knowledge’:

“Most was known… . Other peoples are not being hindered in the development of the bomb by any secrets we are keeping. They might be helped a little by our mentioning which of two processes is found to be more efficient, & by our telling them what size parts to plan for—but
soon they will be able to do to Columbus, Ohio, and hundreds of cities like it what we did to Hiroshima.
And we scientists are clever—too clever—are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it!”

During an interview with the BBC, he admitted that he shared in the collective excitement and celebration at the time. He said this posed a stark contrast to the people who were suffering and dying in Japan. He talked about being in New York after World War Two and imagining the devastation if an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Feynman said it left him in a “depressive condition”. Not helped by the fact that his wife had recently died on 16 June 1945.

Like all of us, complex and complicated.

Stargazing Guy

“We scientists are clever — too clever — are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it!.” (This is a year of Feynman – week 22 of 52)

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“We scientists are clever — too clever — are you not satisfied? Is four square miles in one bomb not enough? Men are still thinking. Just tell us how big you want it!.” (This is a year of Feynman – week 22 of 52)

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