Saving the Feynman van

[n2doc]

“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.”

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http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2014/saving-the-feynman-van

[Sancho]

1. cool story..thanks

[QED]

2. I read story about the van...

Supposedly someone saw Feynman with the van and asked "Why do you have Feynman diagrams on your van?" Feynman responded, "Because I'm Richard Feynman."

I don't know if it's for real - wouldn't anyone who knew the diagrams recognize Feynman? But what the heck, it's an amusing story.

[Bigmack]

3. LOVE Feynman….a thousand years ago

when I was in high school in a small town in Washington state, the new, enterprising science teacher at our high school persuaded the school to spring for the BRAND new (then) PSSC physics course, which came with a new textbook and movies for a bunch of the labs and ideas. SEVERAL of the movies, as I recall, had Richard Feynman in them, and we ALL loved the guy! Ms Bigmack