Talks with Richard Feynman
400
Physicist Leonard Mlodinow traveled to Caltech Institute to investigate. There he was assigned an office in the Department of Theoretical Physics. And he was surprised when he discovered those who belonged to the offices of the area: on one side was Richard Feynman and on the other Murray Gell-Mann. By then, the two Nobel prizes were famous and of great personality. Feynman made great contributions to quantum electrodynamics and Gell-Mann proposed the quark classification model. In addition, both jointly made great strides in the framework of weak interaction. Mlodinow was scared.
In this autobiographical book, Mlodinow tells of that time. He especially describes his particular relationship with Feynman. It is the last years of Feynman, a man with a cancer diagnosis who is preparing for death. But that doesn't mean Feynman is down. Upside down. His strength and vitality was famous and in recent years he continued the same. And perhaps for this reason, the encounters that the author maintained with him had a great interest. Mlodinow describes them very well in this book. The whole book is well written.
The author also related to Gell-Mann. And as the chapter progresses you see how that relationship evolved, at first Mlodinow did not like Gell-Mann, but then begins to appreciate thanks in part to Feynman. The relationship between both geniuses was known at Caltech. They never stopped getting into trouble, discussing passionately and at the same time admiring each other.
At the time of the story, Mlodinow sought a topic to investigate and sought advice. He held numerous conversations with Feynman (when he was left with the secretary of the Helen section, who supported him greatly from unscheduled visits to Feynman). And in those colloquiums, they also filmed about physics, about beauty and about the reasons for wanting to investigate, among many other topics.
Mlodinow also tells his story in a very attractive way. At some point, for example, your doctor finds lumps in your testicles and threatens your cancer. And that changes his relationship with Feynman or so the author feels.
In short, the book is not about physics, but about physicists. It is above all a tribute to Richard Feynman, so the book is entitled Feynman's Rainbow.
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