As insightful a scientific biography as ever written
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For all of us who have studied theoretical physics, Richard Feynman was a cult figure - the magical scientist who brought a breath of fresh air into physics with his innovative style, and irrepressible personality. Feynman may or may not have been a genius (the description is so difficult). Michael Berry (as of Berry's phase in quantum mechanics) once wrote in a review in Physics World that Feynman was not a physicist of the first rank - which Berry reserved for figures like Einstien and Dirac. That may well be true in a more dispassionate assessment of Feynman. However, what is impossible to deny is that he was one of the most innovative and creative scientists of his age, with a lightning quick mind who left his peers in no doubt that he was a genius. He certainly had the ability of genius - to see patterns and simplicity where others saw just complexity. It takes a deeply creative mind to ascribe pattern and simplicity to nature. Nature does not reveal her secrets easily to lesser mortals (now is that a Feynman quote?). Feynman the genius needed a genius of a biographer - one who could truly understand the complex melody that was the entirety of the man. Richard Feynman may have marched to the beat of a different drum, as Julian Schwinger so eleganly put it, but it needed another genius to explain and critique the beats, rythms and melodies the great scientist heard. Gleick has made this beat and rythm, the entire symphony if you will, available to the rest of us. This must be one of the most incisive biographies ever written. Not only was Feynman a genius - I suspect Gleick is as well.
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Genius: really an appropriate title
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This is the first scientific biography that I read, and slowly I got hooked onto Feyn-mania. I went on to read all books on or by Feynman.
Gleick gives a beautiful picture of Feynman the genius, Feynman the human being, Feynman the physicist, Feynman the naughty mischevious guy, Feynman the teacher and Feynman the showman and raconteur: all in one! All the scientific jargon about quantum mechanics is explained in a beautiful and lucid manner that even non-physicists can understand.
All in all, it's a must read for everyone!
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A good read
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I began the book with Feynman as a god-like figure who could do no wrong and after reading the book I found I was mostly right. However, I did appreciate the author's effort to make him human, he had his 'faults' and he was to some extent a man of his time (when it came to his personal life (ie., women)). But when it came to his science, and in particular his mind, the man is a true Genius. His mind works with such clarity and foresight, it's truely amazing. The only part of the book I found not to my liking, was that the author feels the need to explain the ins and outs of some fairly complex physics, which I was not prepared to try to understand. I can only begin to imagine how complex that field is if the version 'we' were given in the book was the very watered-down version of the field. You dont need to understand quantum physics to be amazed by Feynman. In all, it was an insightful book and well worth the time!
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Wow- an excellent read
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Go on folks- read this book. Even if its the only "physiscsy" book you ever read.
A brilliant insight into the mind of a genius (as the name might suggest); truly awe inspiring in places, it makes you realise what an amazing life this gent had.
Definately the best book about Richard Feynman that there is, you'll want to read it again and again.
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Genius Squared
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We know Feynman was a genius. We know he could tell a good "story" (as long as someone else wrote it down). It takes the genius of Gleick to give us the account Dick Feynman and we deserve. Definitive. Buy two copies - one for daily reading and one for best!...
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