There are many biographies of Richard Feynman, including
three autobiographical volumes. Why,
then, has Lawrence Krauss taken the time to write another? Because this one is
different. This one spends relatively
little time discussing Feynman’s personality, his childhood, his romances and
so on and concentrates on his role in physics.
Feynman contributed to a remarkably wide range of physics,
but his major area was quantum physics.
This makes Krauss’s job hard for two reasons: First, Krauss has to
understand that same range of physics well enough to be able to consider
Feynman’s contribution. Second, quantum
physics is notoriously tricky to explain.
Krauss is up to the task. His description of science is
perfect for his audience which is the educated lay person. He manages to convey
the central importance of Feynman’s work without either dumbing it down too
much or overwhelming us with equations – indeed, I don’t recall any equations.
Krauss also comments on what made Feynman more than just
another really smart person. Two
things
that stood out are Feynman’s powers of concentration, which were remarkable
even among top ranked physicists and Feynman’s insistence on working everything
out for himself and not accepting anything just because it was in a
textbook.
No comments:
Post a Comment