Feynman van restored

Michelle Feynman poses by the restored Feynman van with her two children.

"Saving the Feynman van"

May 8th, 2014

Symmetry

A team of Richard Feynman's friends and fans banded together to restore the Nobel laureate's most famous vehicle.
Kathryn Jepsen

“The game I play is a very interesting one,” says Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman in a low-resolution video posted to YouTube. “It's imagination in a tight straitjacket.”

Feynman is describing his job as a theoretical physicist: to lay out what humanity knows about how the world works, and to search the spaces in between for what we might have missed.

The video shows more than Feynman's way with words. It shows his approachability. One of the greatest minds that particle physics has ever known stands barefoot, lecturing in a distinct Queens, New York, accent for an audience lounging casually on the floor at the new-age Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.

In a way, Feynman remains approachable to this day for all of the snippets of his personality left behind in books, letters and recordings of formal and informal lectures and interviews.

Recently, a more concrete bit of Feynman history came out of retirement: A small team has brought back to life the so-called “Feynman van.”

One camper, special order

In 1975, Feynman and his wife, Gweneth Howarth, bought a Dodge Tradesman Maxivan and had it painted with Feynman diagrams, symbols Feynman had invented to express complicated particle interactions through simple lines and loops.

It might seem arrogant to drive around in a van covered in reminders of one’s own intellectual prowess. But Feynman's daughter, Michelle, thinks the decorations represented something else: a love of physics.

“My dad was pretty low-key about himself,” she says. “I think decorating the van was more to celebrate the diagrams than to celebrate himself.”

Michelle's parents put a lot of thought into the design of the vehicle, which they primarily used for camping, Michelle says. It was outfitted with a small hammock for Michelle to use in case the family of four needed to sleep inside during inclement weather.

“I don't think that they had ever done anything like that with a car purchase before,” Michelle says. “It was always: Go to the dealer and find something—it doesn't really matter what color it is—and you'll have it for a million years.”
The Feynman family took the van to Canada, Mexico and dozens of US campsites in between, often traveling with a couple of other families, often leaving the paved road for the unknown.

Michelle began driving the van to school after she turned 16.

“I thought it was kind of embarrassing,” she says. “But at a certain point I kind of got over it. If you want to drive at that age, you'll drive anything.”
After Michelle’s first couple of years in college, one of her father’s friends, film producer Ralph Leighton—Feynman’s drumming partner in another famous fuzzy YouTube clip—bought the van and put it into storage, where it began to rust and fade.

Saving the Feynman van

When video game designer Seamus Blackley, known as the father of the Xbox, got ahold of the van in 2012, “it was just about too late,” Blackley says.

Blackley has a history with particle physics. He was in his early 20s, working on his PhD thesis at Tufts University and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, when he saw his plans for the future disintegrate with the defunding of the planned Superconducting Super Collider.

“I found out on CNN,” he says.

He changed course and wound up taking a job working on some of the first computer games with 3D graphics. He designed the physics of the game environments, “keeping things from going into other things.” He has helped shape the world of video games in a variety of different roles since.

Game design takes the same type of thinking Feynman described in his talk at the Esalen Institute, Blackley says. A designer must creatively solve problems without breaking the rules that keep the environment realistic—“and then you have to have a lot of intuition about how to make it fun.”

In 2005, Blackley moved to Pasadena, California, just miles from where Leighton was keeping Feynman’s van. Oblivious to his proximity to the famous camper, Blackley nonetheless began to make a hobby of restoring classic Italian cars.

It was fellow Pasadena resident Michael Shermer, founder of the Skeptics Society, who told him about the van in 2012. Blackley knew right away that he had to help save it.

“The universe is telling me I've gotta do this,” he says.

With the help of Leighton and Shermer, along with a donation from Feynman fan and world-class designer Edward Tufte, Blackley registered the van as a historic vehicle and brought it to his preferred restoration specialists in Los Angeles.

The van’s Feynman diagrams, which were painted poorly in the first place, turned out to be too degraded for restoration. So a pinstriper re-painted them, taking care to replicate the quality of the original work.

“It looks like this crappy job again,” Blackley says with a smile. “You see the brush marks and everything.”

After the restoration, Blackley prepared to ship the van across the country for a Feynman-themed exhibit by Tufte, held at Fermilab.

Keeping the Feynman spirit alive

The test of whether the specialists had stayed true to the original came when Blackley invited Michelle to come see the van before its next big trip. She came with her 11- and 13-year-old children.

It didn’t look brand new, Michelle says, but it was as if it had been rewound 30 years, back to the days when her father was still in the driver's seat. She told Blackley and her kids about the times her father slept on the floor below her hammock.

“As a father now, you appreciate what that means,” says Blackley, who has an 11-year-old son.

A camping van incongruously covered in physics notations seems to be a fitting symbol for a man who couldn’t seem to help thinking about particle physics, Michelle says.

“It think it was impossible for him to turn it off,” she says. “I remember in the car there was a Kleenex box, and the back of it had been used for equations. Every little piece of paper and every waking moment was fair game.”
Richard Feynman died of cancer in 1988 at the age of 69. But projects like the van restoration keep his memory alive, Michelle says.

“He would've been an amazing grandfather, and he never had the opportunity,” she says. “So I'm thrilled that there are so many people around who want to share his spirit and his life so my kids can get a sense of who he is.”

No evidence, but pubically accepted...Richard Feynman's "cargo cult science"

"More on the crisis in research: Feynman on 'cargo cult science'"

by

Michael Hiltzik

October 28th, 2013

latimes.com

After reading my weekend column about the crisis in life science research, Hajime Hoji of USC's linguistics department reminded me of the late Richard Feynman's brilliant deconstruction of the flaws and pitfalls of science as it's done in the modern age.

"Cargo Cult Science" was adapted from Feynman's 1974 commencement speech at Caltech, where his spirit reigns as one of that institution's two certified saints. (The other is Robert A. Millikan, Caltech's first president.) The text appears in his 1985 book, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Here are some excerpts, but the talk is worth reading in its entirety, both for Feynman's lucid, engaging style and the depth of his thinking.

In the talk, Feynman discussed how much laypersons and scientists themselves take for granted about research results. "We really ought to look into theories that don't work, and science that isn't science," he said. "Cargo cult science" was his term for research that never seemed to yield provable results, but acquired public acceptance because they possessed the veneer of rigorous methodology.

What cargo cult science lacked was something that, he observed, was never actually taught to Caltech students. "It's a kind of scientific integrity...that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty--a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid--not only what you think is right about it....Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them....If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it."

One suspects that Feynman, who died in 1988, would be appalled by the current standards of research publication, which critics say favor audacious claims instead of the painstaking, judicious marshaling of evidence he advocated. It's even more striking today to ponder his confidence in science's ability to weed out factitious or mistaken findings.

"We've learned from experience that the truth will come out," he told the students. "Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right.... And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in cargo cult science."

The truth is that the testing of experimental results by other experimenters is exactly what may be lacking in today's publication-driven science world. And as some scientists recognize, getting a paper published in a prestigious journal can do a great deal for one's reputation, even if it's later shown to be wrong.

Even then, Feynman acknowledged that desperation for research funding was driving a tendency by scientists to hype the applications of their work. Otherwise, a friend told him, "we won't get support for more research of this kind." Feynman's reaction was characteristically blunt. "I think that's kind of dishonest," he said.

Physicist, bongo player, artist...[Ofey] Richard Feynman

 Cathy McAlpine Myers

 Cathy McAlpine Myers

1968

 Dancer at Gianonni's Bar

1968

 Female Posing

1968

 Girl with a Doll

 Nude from Behind

Jennifer Ouellette...

Think physicist Richard Feynmann’s only artistic hobby was playing the bongos? Surprise! He also dabbled in art. This week, Brain Pickings featured “The Art of Ofey” (his artsy nom de plume), a selection of Feynman’s sketches and drawings. “I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world.”

Many more at...

Richard Feynman's Works of Art

Richard Feynman [Wikipedia]

Feynman's physics lectures...online

"Bill Gates puts Feynman physics lectures online"

by

Mike Magee

July 15th, 2009

TG Daily

A collection of lectures delivered by physicist Richard Feynman and privately bought by Microsoft founder Bill Gates have been posted online.

Feynman shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, while the series of lectures were delivered at Cornell University in 1964.

There are seven lectures in the series, and Gates said: "No one was more adept at making science fun and interesting than Richard Feynman. More than 20 years after first seeing them, these are still some of the best science lectures I've heard. Feynman worked hard during his life to popularize science, so I'm sure he'd be thrilled that now anyone, anywhere in the world can just click a button and experience his lectures."

According to Microsoft Research, Feynman was known for a quirky sense of humor and had eccentric and wide ranging interests. He died in 1988. One of his quotations reads: "I believe that a scientist looking at non scientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy".

This is a nice one too: "You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing - that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

The seven lectures are here - you will have to install Microsoft Silverlight to see them though.


"Little Things That Jiggle: Richard Feynman and Atomic Physics"

Richard Feynman stories

A birthday celebration today-- Freeman Dyson...#85

While he was in his 20s, Dyson made a huge contribution to science: He [with Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga] solved the central problem of quantum electrodynamics...a theory that describes how light and matter interact--without the credentials of a Ph.D. He has written many popular science books including the Disturbing The Universe [1979 ] when he was 55. Today, he is 85....Happy Birthday Mr. Dyson.

Books [some co-authored]:

A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe

ISBN-10: 0813926637
ISBN-13: 978-0813926636

Advanced Quantum Mechanics

ISBN-10: 9812706615
ISBN-13: 978-9812706614

Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character

ISBN-10: 0393061329
ISBN-13: 978-0393061321

Disturbing The Universe

ISBN-10: 0465016774
ISBN-13: 978-0465016778

From Eros to Gaia

ISBN-10: 0140174230
ISBN-13: 978-0140174236

Imagined Worlds (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)

ISBN-10: 0674539095
ISBN-13: 978-0674539099

Infinite in All Directions: Gifford Lectures Given at Aberdeen, Scotland April--November 1985

ISBN-10: 0060728892
ISBN-13: 978-0060728892

Origins of Life

ISBN-10: 0521626684
ISBN-13: 978-0521626682

Pensées intimes

ISBN-10: 2268037401
ISBN-13: 978-2268037400

Selected Papers of Freeman Dyson: With Commentary (Collected Works)

ISBN-10: 0821805614
ISBN-13: 978-0821805619

The Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels

ISBN-10: 0387952535
ISBN-13: 978-0387952536

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

ISBN-10: 0140290346
ISBN-13: 978-0140290349

The Scientist as Rebel

ISBN-10: 1590172949
ISBN-13: 978-1590172940

The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolution

ISBN-10: 0195139224
ISBN-13: 978-0195139228

Weapons and Hope

ISBN-10: 0060390395
ISBN-13: 978-0060390396


Freeman Dyson

Freeman Dyson [Wikipedia]

Book review--"Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life"

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life

by

Leonard Mlodinow

ISBN: 0759547599

"This is another amazing book about the personality and point of views of Richard Feynman. In the early 80’s, Leonard Mlodinow, a recent doctor admitted at Caltech, has doubts about his future career and his role as a scientist. However, he had the honor to have his office located in the same hall of Feynman’s office. By his talks to Feynman (which some of them were recorded and the transcripts are in the book), Mlodinow grasps his ideas about the importance of imagination, love, beauty, and dedication in science, and his point of view about life. I highly recommend this book for graduate students who aren't sure of their future careers or for undergraduate students who want to understand how a scientist’s brilliant mind works."--Bruna.


Richard Feynman stories

Do you have a book review that you would like to submit that is relevant to science, philosophy of science, and embraces fiction, non-fiction, or reference texts...then submit as a comment here.

Einstein relaxed

It is comforting that high profile scientists are human too.

"Einstein in Western Maryland"

by

Francis M. Tam

Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD

The Physics Teacher, Vol. 43, No. 4

April 2005

©2005 American Association of Physics Teachers. All rights reserved

Albert Einstein vacationed for two weeks in September 1946 at Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. It was a well-kept secret. This paper describes his ordinary and yet so extraordinary visit, its historical context, his daily routine, and some interesting stories that reveal his simplicity, humanity, and unique sense of humor.

The year 1946 was one Einstein might rather have forgotten. It was right after World War II. Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945. On December 10, 1954, Einstein remarked: "The war was won, but peace was not." He was the man pictured next to a mushroom cloud on the front cover of TIME magazine July 1, 1946, despite his having made clear on many occasions that he had nothing to do with the manufacture of the bomb. Einstein was a pacifist. He was against any kind of war or violence. Alarmed by the Nazi threat, he did sign a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt dated August 2, 1939, urging him to initiate a nuclear research program. He was, however, not actively involved in the development and production of the bomb, known as the Manhattan Project. His famous E = mc2 equation was first proposed in the formulation of special theory of relativity in 1905, and the idea of transforming mass into energy was basic to the understanding of how the fission bomb worked. But Einstein could not really be held morally responsible some 40 years later for an application he did not foresee. Yet he expressed deep regret for having signed the letter to Roosevelt.

In 1945, Einstein had just retired from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Tired of unwanted publicity and mass media, he was longing for a place of solitude and peace. The late John Steiding of Midland, MD, invited Einstein to visit Deep Creek Lake. Steiding worked for the Celanese Fiber Company as a chemist. He came to know Einstein through a co-worker's wife, who was sculpting a bust of Einstein. Einstein, who wasn't very tall, found it uncomfortable to pose for the artwork since his feet would not touch the floor. John Steiding, being a handyman, made a footstool for Einstein.

Few people know of Einstein's vacation at Deep Creek. As a matter of fact, his visit wasn't revealed in the local Cumberland newspaper for more than 30 years—not until 1979. Einstein was guaranteed complete privacy at Deep Creek, where he was protected from reporters and media. He was to seek the advice of Dr. Frank Wilson, a prominent local surgeon, on an undisclosed ailment, which we now know was an aneurysm of the aorta of the abdomen.

Einstein stayed for two weeks at Dr. Wilson's summer cottage, Mar-Jo-Lodge, in the Long Neck section of Deep Creek Lake. He led a simple life, spending a great deal of time reading and meditating in front of the fireplace. He loved the tranquility and solitude of western Maryland.

He took daily walks along the lake, frequently stopping to chat with strangers who had no idea who he was. He was sometimes seen fishing and also bird-watching with binoculars. He never skipped a meal but was a light eater. He drank a lot of water and lemonade; his favorite vegetable was fresh corn-on-the-cob from Garrett County.

Einstein loved sailing because it was "the sport which demands the least energy." Despite the fact that he could not swim, he refused to wear a life jacket. Sailing gave Einstein a sense of peace and freedom. There were times when "people would realize that he wasn't around, go searching for him, and find him in Harry Muma's little sailboat, `single-handing,' on the Turkey Neck inlet".

Einstein also loved children. He took the time to respond to letters from children all over the world. In his words, his secret was "to be like a child."

There were many interesting stories of Einstein during his stay in western Maryland. These stories not only capture Einstein's simplicity but also his unique sense of humor. During his visit, Fred Steiding, brother of John Steiding, asked him to explain relativity in layman's terms. "Put it this way," said Einsten, "if you sit on a park bench with your sweetheart, an hour seems like a minute. If you sit on a hot stove by mistake, a minute seems like an hour." There is also a charming story having to do with the invitation Einstein received from Isaac Hirsch, president of B'er Chayim Congregation in Cumberland. Hirsch wrote in 1946, "Knowing he was of my faith, and our high holidays would soon be here, I invited him to attend our services and be my guest." Einstein's response in a letter dated September 24, 1946, read, "Despite being something like a Jewish saint I have been absent from a synagogue so long that I am afraid God would not recognize me and if He would it would be worse."

At the end of his visit, Einstein gave a $50 gratuity in an autographed envelope to Blair Thompson, also known as "Man Friday," who was employed by Dr. Wilson to serve Einstein as personal attendant. Fifty dollars in 1946 was quite generous indeed, considering that it would be equivalent to more than $1000 in 2005. Thompson admitted in 1998 that he had spent the $50, and regrettably lost the autographed envelope.

Was it all rest and play and no work for Einstein at Deep Creek? Surely not. He must have been thinking about his unified field theory, on which he published papers in 1950 and 1953. And, of course, he was deeply concerned about world peace. In May 1946 he became chairman of the Emergency Committee for Atomic Scientists. In October 1946 he wrote a letter to the United Nations urging them to form a world government to maintain world peace under nuclear threat.

Einstein loved the simple life he lived in western Maryland. He was immersed in the beauty and solitude of the mountain scenery: "Liking for moderation and beauty was for him relaxation after the exaggerated glorifications and animosities he had experienced." He was friendly and unassuming, humble and yet so famous. He was simple and yet so complex. In a letter Einstein wrote to fellow Nobel laureate Max Born on April 12, 1949, he stated, "You ask me what my attitude is towards the simple life. I simply enjoy giving more than receiving in every respect, do not take myself nor the doings of the masses seriously."

In Einstein's words, the visit to Deep Creek Lake was "one of the most restful and zestful vacations." Memories of it will long continue to live in western Maryland.

References:

1. J. Suter Kegg, Cumberland News, September 13, 1979. first citation in article

2. Ze'ev Rosenkranz, The Einstein Scrapbook (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 141, 146–147. first citation in article

3. Ibid., pp. 146–147. first citation in article

4. Deep Creek Lake, Past and Present (Garrett County Historical Society, 1999), p. 9. first citation in article

5. Evelyn Einstein, foreword to Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children, edited by Alice Calaprice (Prometheus Books, 2002). first citation in article

6. Isaac Hirsch, My Story, printed by Daniels Photo Offset (April 1955). first citation in article

7. Linda Browning, Luke Mill Report (Westvaco Corp., Summer 1979) and the Glades Star (Garrett County Historical Society, Sept. 1981). first citation in article

8. Ze'ev Rosenkranz, The Einstein Scrapbook (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 76–77. first citation in article

9. Philipp Frank, Einstein: His Life & Times (The Alden Press, London, 1949), p. 198. first citation in article

10. Einstein: A Centenary Volume, edited by A.P. French (Harvard University Press, 1979), p. 276. first citation in article

"Albert Einstein's Long Island Summer"

by

Chuck Rothman

Einstein and David Rothman

In the summer of 1939, Albert Einstein spent his summer on Nassau Point, in Peconic, NY on eastern Long Island. My grandfather, David Rothman, was owner of Rothman's Department Store in nearby Southold.

One June day, Einstein came into the store. Of course, my grandfather recognized him at once. He decided, though, to treat him just like any other customer.

"Are you looking for something in particular?" he asked

"Sundials," Einstein said in his thick German accent.

Now, Rothman's has always had a large variety of items -- just about everything from housewares, to fishing tackle and bait, to hardware, to toys, to appliances. But no sundials. Not for sale, anyway. But...

"I do have one in my back yard," my grandfather said.

He led Einstein -- who seems a bit bewildered -- to the back yard, to show him the sundial. "If you need one you can have this."

Einstein took one look and began to laugh. He pointed to his feet. "No. Sundials."

Sandals. Those, he had.

As he was ringing up the sale, Einstein heard the classical music playing on the record player. Talking about it, my grandfather mentioned he played the violin.

Einstein lit up. "We must play together some time."

They set a date. As he prepared, my grandfather wasn't sure which music to bring, and finally decided on an assortment from simple to a Bach piece that was the most difficult thing he played. When he arrived at the summer cottage Einstein rented (still referred to as "The Einstein House"), he was welcomed warmly. Einstein looked over the music and chose the Bach.

They began to play. It was obviously quite quickly that my grandfather was out of his league; Einstein was just too good. After a couple of minutes, Einstein set down his violin. "Let's talk instead."

The rest of the evening was spent out on Einstein's front porch, just talking. My grandfather only had grade school education, but was intensely interested in science and philosophy, and the two men found they had some common ground.

After several hours, Einstein's housekeeper came out and scolded my grandfather. "You are keeping Dr. Einstein awake," she said.

"No," Einstein said. "I am keeping Mr. Rothman awake."

My grandfather spent a good deal of time that summer with Einstein, talking about all sorts of things. Some highlights:

At one point, Einstein offered to explain relativity to my grandfather. Now my grandfather only had a grade school education, but he also had a love of science. He agreed, but on one condition: that Einstein didn't use any mathematics. Einstein agreed. As he started the explanation, he took out a sheet of paper and began to jot numbers on it.

"Remember," my grandfather said. "No mathematics." Einstein said it was only to help him to compose his thoughts and went on. He continued to give the explanation, all the time writing the math on the paper. Finally, he tried to use it. My grandfather told him about their agreement. "But these are so trivial!" Einstein said. (I think these were the Lorentz transformation equations, by the way.)

While Einstein was staying in Peconic, the best-known thing he did was when he wrote a letter to President Roosevelt that led to the start of the Manhattan project. The letter was written at the request of Leo Szillard and Eugene Wigner, who drove out from New York to ask Einstein to write it. When Szillard and Wigner arrived, Einstein was on the front porch talking to my grandfather.

Another time Einstein was asked (through my grandfather) to come to a local meeting that was organizing attempts to get refugees out of Germany. The person in charge said that they merely wanted his presence, and my grandfather warned them not to ask him to speak. They agreed.

The day of the meeting, my grandfather went to pick him up. My grandfather wore a suit and tie. Einstein came down to meet him wearing his usual attire: an undershirt and baggy pants tied with a rope. "My, you're looking elegant," he said. Einstein got the point; he went upstairs to change.

Halfway through the meeting, the moderator introduced Einstein and (of course) asked him to give a speech. He gave my grandfather a funny look, but went up to the dais. When it was his turn to speak, he said, "You must organize just as we Jews have organized. Otherwise you will have a big problem." Then he sat down.

After the meeting, a crowd of people congregated around Einstein. After answering a question or two, he whispered to my grandfather, "Get me out of here."

Around this time, Riverside Church in Manhattan planned to put up statues to the eight most famous scientists who ever lived. Einstein, of course, was included. My grandfather asked him how it felt to be immortalized (he was the only living scientist included).

Einstein said, "From now on, and for the rest of my life, I must be very careful not to commit a scandal."

At the time, Einstein was working on developing his Unified Field Theory. He described it as an attempt to work out a relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. My grandfather pointed out the parallel between the planets in their orbits and electrons in theirs. Einstein said, "I not interested so much in the particles as I am in the spaces between them."

Once, Einstein describing his leaving Germany: One night, Storm Troopers came to his house and took him and his wife outside, then went in to search for weapons. A little while later, they returned with a set of carving knives. "See?" they said. "Weapons." Then the smashed Einstein's sailboat. He said to his wife, "Look good at this place, for you will not see it again." They left the country that night. "You know," Einstein said, "if they had catched me, they would have killed me."

Einstein the Sailor

One of Einstein's favorite form of recreation was sailing on his boat "Tinef" (Yiddish for "junk"). It was small, maybe about 15 feet or so, and very unprepossessing.

One day he decided to sail to visit my grandfather. That was a fairly long trip. My grandfather got a call in the morning that Einstein was on his way.

The afternoon dragged on; no sign of Einstein. My grandfather began to be worried: Einstein couldn't swim. The sun was setting and still no word. Finally, he got a call from a local policeman, saying that there was this weird-looking guy who needed a haircut wandering the beach and asking for David Rothman.

(One time, Einstein actually fell into the water and had to be rescued by a teenager who had been passing by and heard his calls for help. The kid left and didn't even tell his name.)

Einstein and my grandfather met for the last time in 1946, with Einstein saying, "I have had the most wonderful summers of my entire life, and this I owe to your initiative." And every year, my grandfather sent him a pair of sandals.

Also see:

Richard Feynman stories

Imagination/Science

Albert Einstein and Marie Curie

"When I examine myself and my methods
of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the
gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent
for absorbing positive knowledge."

Albert Einstein

This can either be a sincere humble statement by one of the world's most famous men and/or an affirmation of an unwritten criterion of scientific methodology. Anecdotical material spans many centuries from a cry by Archemedes from the streets of Syracuse--Eureka!--[relationship between volume and displacement] to Newton and the loose apple [gravity]. And I am sure there are many similar unrecorded instances of equal inspiration. Imagination is certainly one of those unquantifiable characteristics of mankind embracing just about every feature of mankind--science not being excluded. Einstein certainly employed the "what if" attitude and as stated placed a higher value on inspiration than knowledge accumulation. Imagine a collection of imaginative thinkers--thus "think tanks", editorial boards, and endless committees. Humm--just another wonderful feature of the cognitive process yielding unlimited results.

This whole concept of "imagination" [say, the "creative" process] is quite fascinating in the formulation of something novel. And certainly the whole process is not constricted to the realm of the sciences. i.e., art, music, literature, etc. I suspect there are numerous individual methodologies that can and do contribute to the creative process—some socially acceptable and some not acceptable. And certainly, respective individual mental dispositions do play a role. Age may well be a factor too. Is it feasible that "reason" is suspended and the mind wanders into uncharted realms of neuron relationships? Maybe "daydreaming" is significant.

I was going through some back issues of Smithsonian and discovered an article about renaissance man Ralph Waldo Emerson and the romantic notion that Emerson antedated the likes of Erwin Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, the propagators of quarks, and the "Big Bang" hypothesis. That's an eighty year spread. Emerson wrote in his essay "Nature" ..."Compound it how she will, star, sand, fire, water, tree, man, it is still one stuff, and betrays the same properties," and "Without electricity the air would rot." Such foresight is not uncommon as seen by H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, or the Star Trek writers, but is it a "good guess", future serendipity, coincidence, keen insight? Is something unexplained here in that some individuals can [albeit by poetry or prose] intimate future generalized hypotheses and theories?

"So many of his witnesses observed the utter freedom of his flights of thought, yet when Feynman talked about his own methods not freedom but constraint ... For Feynman the essence of scientific imagination was a powerful and almost painful rule. What scientists create must match reality. It must match what is already known. Scientific creativity, he said, is imagination in a straitjacket ... The rules of harmonic progression made for Mozart a cage as unyielding as the sonnet did for Shakespeare. As unyielding and as liberating - for later critics found the creator's genius in the counterpoint of structure and freedom, rigour and inventiveness."--James Gleick

"If you're teaching a class, you can think about the elementary things that you know very well. These things are kind of fun and delightful. It doesn't do any harm to think them over again. Is there a better way to present them? The elementary things are easy to think about; if you can't think of a new thought, no harm done; what you thought about it before is good enough for the class. If you do think of something new, you're rather pleased that you have a new way of looking at it."--Richard Feynman

Purpose in the universe

In 14th Century Europe a fictional Scandinavian knight with his squire after the last Crusade return to their homeland. The civilized world is being ravaged by the Black Plague: More horrific than any battle and just as wasteful. With altruism in mind for companion and acquaintances and an opportunity to probe the mysteries of life the brave knight challenges and arrests his call by Death through a game of chess--alleviate the emanate peril temporally and allowing time seeking the ultimate answer to life. Granted, the tone is more theological than scientific but it nevertheless attests to the timeless question of the purpose of the universe and man's relationship to the universe.

The KNIGHT is kneeling before a small altar. It is dark and quiet around him. The air is cool and musty. Pictures of saints look down on him with stony eyes. Christ's face is turned upwards, His mouth open as if in a cry of anguish. On the ceiling beam there is a representation of a hideous devil spying on a miserable human being. The KNIGHT hears a sound from the confession booth and approaches it. The face of DEATH appears behind the grille for an instant, but the KNIGHT doesn't see him.

KNIGHT: I want to talk to you as openly as I can, but my heart is empty.

DEATH doesn't answer.

KNIGHT: The emptiness is a mirror turned towards my own face. I see myself in it, and I am filled with fear and disgust.

DEATH doesn't answer.

KNIGHT: Through my indifference to my fellow men, I have isolated myself from their company. Now I live in a world of phantoms. I am imprisoned in my dreams and fantasies.

DEATH: And yet you don't want to die.

KNIGHT: Yes, I do.

DEATH: What are you waiting for?

KNIGHT: I want knowledge.

DEATH: You want guarantees?

KNIGHT: Call it whatever you like. Is it so cruelly inconceivable to grasp God with the senses? Why should He hide himself in a mist of half-spoken promises and unseen miracles?

DEATH doesn't answer.

KNIGHT: How can we have faith in those who believe when we can't have faith in ourselves? What is going to happen to those of us who want to believe but aren't able to? And what is to become of those who neither want to nor are capable of believing?

The KNIGHT stops and waits for a reply, but no one speaks or answers him. There is complete silence.

KNIGHT: Why can't I kill God within me? Why does He live on in this painful and humiliating way even though I curse Him and want to tear Him out of my heart? Why, in spite of everything, is He a baffling reality that I can't shake is He a baffling reality that I can't shake off? Do you hear me?

DEATH: Yes, I hear you.

KNIGHT: I want knowledge, not faith, not suppositions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand towards me, reveal Himself and speak to me.

DEATH: But He remains silent.

KNIGHT: I call out to Him in the dark but no one seems to be there.

DEATH: Perhaps no one is there.

KNIGHT: Then life is an outrageous horror. No one can live in the face of death, knowing that all is nothingness.

DEATH: Most people never reflect about either death or the futility of life.

KNIGHT: But one day they will have to stand at that last moment of life and look towards the darkness.

DEATH: When that day comes ....

KNIGHT: In our fear, we make an image, and that image we call God.

Excerpt from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal screenplay.

Existential angst for Antonius Block [the knight]? Answers may not be found, but no harm in asking. Meaning, purpose, relevancy. Science/technology have yielded tremendous data and extended our probe into the universe. The raw data is refined and analyzed and we know little more about the meaning of the universe and ourselves than when we started. Relevant conclusions provide no further reason and in some case just cloud and frustrate. We certainly are overwhelmed with events and the immensity of the universe--we still can't find our niche. I suppose we try to find solace in our wish to find other beings and wish that we may be unique but may well have to accept utter loneliness and a species's futile existence. The juxtaposition between man and the universe for a purposeful relationship may be non-existent and irrelevant in the long run, but we wish to make it meaningful--individually and as a species. We question the universe; we question ourselves--our mortality is on the line.

As the late Richard Feynman said: "But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me". Steven Weinberg also said: "The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy." Neither is that a pointless endeavor nor an invocation of mandatory religion/theology. If it is significant for an individual to introduce a custom made deity or a deity of popularism and mainstream religious/theological movements to enhance the meaning of the universe, that is fine, but one must understand it is best to be fair and tolerate realms of epistemology, cosmology, metaphysics, the sciences for those that adopt and believe in an alternate or modified perspective when one ponders the meaning/purpose of the universe.

The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe by, Steven Weinberg

ISBN: 0465024378