Джеймс Глик - Genius - The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

et al. 1986, Goldstine 1972, Nash 1990, and Wil iams 1985. Feynman retold his best stories in a talk (1975) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The tone of his letters in 1945–45 is very different, and I have relied most heavily on these.

153 HE SWEATED: Feynman to Lucil e Feynman, 9 August 1945, PERS.

153 THEN, SUDDENLY, MUSIC : Ibid.; Weisskopf, interview. But one of the oddities in the memories of that moment is how many different scientists heard different music.

James W. Kunetka, for example, (1979) heard “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

154 MINUS THIRTY MINUTES: Feynman to Lucil e Feynman, 9

August 1945.

154 AND THEN, WITHOUT A SOUND: Frisch 1979, 164.

154 IT BLASTED; IT POUNCED: Talk at Boston Institute for Religious and Social Studies, 3 January 1946. In Rabi 1970, 138–39.

155 WHAT WAS THAT? : Peierls 1985, 202; Feynman 1975, 131. The correspondent was Wil iam L. Laurence.

Eventual y he came to terms with the sound he heard:

“Then out of the great silence came a mighty thunder …

the blast from thousands of blockbusters going off simultaneously … the big boom … earthquake … the first cry of a newborn world.” Laurence 1959, 117.

155 ENRICO FERMI, CLOSER TO THE BLAST: E.g., Kunetka 1979, 169.

155 ANOTHER PHYSICIST THOUGHT FEYNMAN: Jette 1977, 105.

155 NOW HE HAD BEEN DRIVEN SO LOW: Frisch 1979, 155.

156 A CHILL, WHICH WAS NOT THE MORNING COLD: Quoted in Rhodes 1987, 675.

156 IT’S A TERRIBLE THING THAT WE MADE: SYJ, 118.

156 WE JUMPED UP AND DOWN: Feynman to Lucil e Feynman, 9 August 1945.

157 IT IS A WONDERFUL SIGHT: Ibid.

157 WE BECAME THEN: R. Wilson 1972, 475.

157 HAVE THEM DESCRIBE TO YOU: F-W, 328; Wilson, interview.

157 HE DID GATHER INFORMATION: F-W, 329.

157 WE ALL CAME TO MEET THIS BRASH CHAMPION: Morrison 1988, 42; also Morrison, oral-history interview, 7

February 1967, AIP, 34: “He was already heralded as this very clever fel ow from Princeton who knew everything. And he did know everything, you know.”

157 FEYNMAN SAW THAT THE PROBLEM: F-W, 330.

158 SCHWINGER, WHO WAS AMBIDEXTROUS: Bernard Feld, quoted in Schweber, forthcoming.

158 SOMEDAY WHEN THEY MAKE A MOVING PICTURE : F-W, 332; Olum, interview.

159 OPPENHEIMER’S FORMULA: Peierls, quoted in Heilbron and Seidel 1989, 256. 159 A PHYSICS OF BANK SHOTS: Rhodes 1987, 149.

159 WHY DON’T YOU HAVE FISH: Peierls 1985, 190.

159 HE CALLED LONG-DISTANCE: F-W, 337.

160 NOBODY COULD THINK STRAIGHT: Davis 1968, 163.

160 THE STATE OF SECRECY WAS SUCH: F-W, 332.

160 FEYNMAN’S CONTRARIETY WARRED: Feynman 1975, 108.

160 SHE HAD BEGGED RICHARD: Arline Feynman to Feynman,

26 March 1943, PERS.

160 ARLINE CRIED NIGHT AFTER NIGHT: Ibid. and Arline Feynman to Feynman, 19 March 1943, PERS.

161 YET ONE POSSIBILITY WAS PLAYING ITSELF OUT: F-H, 5.

161 AT FIRST THE ONLY TELEPHONE LINK: John H. Manley, “A New Laboratory Is Born,” in Badash et al. 1980, 31.

161 WATER BOILER: Hawkins et al. 1983, 104–5; F-H, 4–6.

162 A TABLE BEHIND A HEAVY CONCRETE WALL : Groueff 1967, 210.

162 THE DRIVER’S LICENSE OF A NAMELESS ENGINEER: State of New Mexico Operator’s License no. 185, 1944, PERS.

162 WELCOME TO LOS ALAMOS: Frisch 1979, 150.

163 TALKS ARE NOT NECESSARILY ON THINGS: Notebook, “A-83–002 7–7,” LANL.

163 REFLECT NEUTRONS … KEEP BOMB IN: Ibid.

164 MOST OF WHAT WAS TO BE DONE: Feynman 1944.

164 THE GHOSTWRITER WAS FEYNMAN: Smyth to Oppenheimer, 1 February 1945, and Oppenheimer to Smyth, 14 April 1945, LANL.

164 FEYNMAN, GIVING SMYTH A TOUR: SYJ, 118; Groueff 1967, 326.

164 A REQUEST FOR OSMIUM: Groueff 1967, 326.

164 THE FIRST DOT OF PLUTONIUM: Hawkins et al. 1983, 72.

165 LISTED THE MAIN QUESTIONS: Feynman 1944. Feynman’s references to tamper materials, along with some other sensitive technical details, were deleted from the report as published.

165 WHEN THEY HEARD THAT LAUGH: E.g., Joseph O.

Hirschfelder, “Scientific-Technological Miracle at Los

Alamos,” in Badash et al. 1980, 81.

165 BETHE AND FEYNMAN—STRANGE PAIR: Frisch 1979, 154.

165 YOU’RE CRAZY: F-W, 339; Bethe, interview; Groueff 1967, 205.

166 IF FEYNMAN SAYS IT THREE TIMES: Schweber, forthcoming.

166 He had worked on: Groueff 1967, 207.

166 A WESTERN UNION KIDDIEGRAM: Rhodes 1987, 416.

166 BETHE HAD LEARNED HIS PHYSICS: Bernstein 1980, 29.

166 AT ROME: L. Fermi 1954, 217.

166 LIGHTNESS OF APPROACH: Bernstein 1980, 31.

168 BETHE LEFT THE INITIAL LECTURES: F-H, 40; Bethe, interview.

168 THE DANGEROUS PRACTICALITIES: Hawkins et al. 1983, 13.

168 FEYNMAN SPENT A LONG TIME TήINKING: F-H, 12–13.

168 BRANCHING-PROCESSES THEORY: Ulam 1976, 153; Harris 1963; David Hawkins, “The Spirit of Play,” in Cooper 1989.

169 HE ARRIVED AT A PRACTICAL METHOD: Bethe, interview. 169

BEGAN TO LOVE HANS BETHE: F-W, 409–10.

169 HE HAD INVITED ONE OF HIS MIT FRATERNITY FRIENDS: Feynman to Daniel Robbins, 24 June 1942, PERS.

169 HE WOULD BE PARTLY OUT OF THE RUSH: Feynman to Lucil e Feynman, 24 June 1943, PERS.

169 WHEN HE WAS INVITED TO MEET A STRANGER : Welton 1983, 7.

170 DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING HERE?: Ibid.

170 IT STINKS: Davis 1968, 215.

170 AS WELTON LISTENED: Welton, interview.

170 HE WAS AMUSED AND IMPRESSED : Welton 1983, 8–9; Welton, interview.

171 WELTON BECAME THE FOURTH PHYSICIST: Along with Frederick Reines, Julius Ashkin, and Richard Ehrlich.

171 DEFINITELY UNGENTLE HUMOR: Welton 1983, 9.

171 ALL RIGHT, PENCILS: F-H, 42–43.

172 BY DEFINITION, AT CRITICAL MASS: Hawkins et al. 1983, 77.

172 FOR A SPHERICAL BOMB : Welton 1983, 11; Welton, interview.

173 BETHE HAD TOLD THEM: Bethe, interview; F-H, 23.

173 WHEN THE LOS ALAMOS METALLURGISTS: Hawkins et al.

1983, 139.

173 IT PUSHED THE THEORISTS PAST THE LIMITS: Welton 1983, 13.

173 FEYNMAN SOLVED THAT PROBLEM: Feynman and Welton 1947, a book-length report, draws together the chief findings of Feynman and his group on critical-mass calculations and neutron scattering. Feynman’s own contribution to the version of the problem in which neutrons are assumed to have a single characteristic velocity—a

practical

simplification

of

methods

developed by others— appears in Feynman 1946b.

173 THE EXPERIENCE OF ACTUAL COMPUTATION: F-H, 23–24.

173 AS HE DROVE THE MEN: Welton 1983, 14.

173 THAT SEEMED AN IMPOSSIBLE LEAP: Ashkin, Ehrlich, and Feynman 1944. Welton recal ed wryly (1983, 14): “Only a short period of reflection was … required before Feynman announced that we were going to take the accumulated computational results from T-2. put them

through the meat grinder, season them with some further insights (yet to be produced) and extrude this mixture as a handy interpolation-extrapolation formula.”

174 UNFORTUNATELY CANNOT BE EXPECTED: Feynman 19466, 3.

174 UNFORTUNATELY THE FIGURES CONTAINED: Ashkin, Ehrlich, and Feynman 1944, 4.

174 THESE METHODS ARE NOT EXACT: Feynman and Welton 1947, 6. 174 AN INTERESTING THEOREM WAS FOUND: Feynman 1946b, 3.

174 IN ALL CASES OF INTEREST: Feynman and Welton 1947, 6.

175 BETHE’S DEPUTY, WEISSKOPF: Weisskopf, oral-history interview, 31, AIP.

176 HE TOLD THEM HE COULD SPOT: F-H, 18.

176 WELL, FOUR HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES AGO: Nicholas Metropolis, interview, Los Alamos, N.M.

176 YOU KNOW HOW IT IS WITH DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME: Morrison 1988, 42.

177 YOU WANT TO KNOW EXACTLY?: Feynman 1975, 109.

177 THAT’S 1.35: F-H, 41.

178 ALL RIGHT. IT’S PI TO THE FOURTH: Ibid., 39.

178 THEN PAUL OLUM SPOKE UP: Olum, interview; F-L for SYJ, 176.