'This is how science is done' (Feynman letters)

[struggle4progress]

Nobel physicist Richard Feynman wrote hundreds of inspiring letters, often to strangers. Below, his daughter Michelle Feynman introduces an edited selection - published here for the first time

Thursday May 12, 2005
The Guardian

<snip> To Mark Minguillon, April 23, 1976

I see nothing wrong with nuclear power except questions of the possibility of explosions, sabotage, stealing fuel to make bombs, leaking stored radioactive spent rods, etc. But all these are technical or engineering questions, about which we can do a great deal. So I think the risks can be controlled and that nuclear power, if economical, should be developed. Problems about the atomic bomb and the future are much more complicated. Well, I guess that means you win your debate — but that doesn't mean we know what's true. Just because Feynman says he is pro-nuclear power, isn't any argument at all worth paying attention to because I can tell you (for I know) that Feynman really doesn't know what he is talking about when he speaks of such things. He knows about other things (maybe). Don't pay attention to "authorities", think for yourself. <snip>



... Arline Feynman died on June 16, 1945 ...
To Arline Feynman, October 17, 1946

D'Arline,

... My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead,

Rich.

PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don't know your new address.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/sciences/story/0,12243,1481644,00.html

[mike_c]

1. oh that made me catch my breath....

wow

[eleny]

2. thanks so much!

[Dudley_DUright]

3. Feynman is one of my intellectual heroes

'Don't pay attention to "authorities", think for yourself' -- Good advice from a Nobel Prize winning physicist!

[nannah]

4. i loved feynman's way of handling certain decisions, like desert

he decided once what he would eat for desert and never had to make the decision again. as it happens i can't quite remember what it was that he selected for his desert... something chocolate i think.

[Dudley_DUright]

6. Chocolate cake if I recall from reading his autobiographies

[applegrove]

5. I love Feynmann. n/t