The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Jagdish Mehra (PDF)

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Few would argue that Richard Feynman was one of the greatest American-born theoretical physicists of the twentieth century, and fewer still would dispute that he was the most iconoclastic. In the words of the eminent mathematician Mark Kac, geniuses are of two kinds: the ordinary, and themagicians. Feynman was a magician of the highest caliber. No one could guess how his mind worked, how he could make transcendental leaps of the imagination so fearlessly. A true original, Feynman was both an inspired, Nobel-prize winning pioneer, and a born showman. He never lost sight of his visionof science as “a long history of learning how not to fool ourselves.” The Beat of a Different Drum is a superb account of Feynman’s life and work, encompassing a singular career that spanned from the detonation of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos to the frontiers of our understanding of the universe. The first biography to offer deep insight into both Feynman’sscientific achievements and his personal life, it is written by Jagdish Mehra. An accomplished physicist and historian of science in his own right, Mehra knew Feynman for thirty years, and their friendship deeply informs all aspects of the book. Feynman invited Mehra to spend three weeks with himshortly before his death in 1988, and after Feynman died, following a ten year battle against cancer, Mehra interviewed almost eighty of his friends and colleagues. They share their recollections of Feynman from his precocious childhood in Queens, New York, to his final days, painting anunforgettable portrait of a scientist who insisted throughout his life on taking the whole of nature as the arena of his science and his imagination. Mehra writes clearly and comprehensively about the theoretical and technical aspects of Feynman’s achievements: his crucial role in the development ofthe atomic bomb; his association with Hans Bethe at Cornell, where he worked out his famous path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, and went on to develop the Feynman diagrams, so ubiquitous in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and statisticalmechanics; and the full range and depth of his work from 1950 until shortly before his death at the California Institute of Technology. Here, too, are intimate glimpses into the development of Feynman’s inner life, including his devoted relationship with his extraordinary father, a self-taught uniform salesman, and his first marriage, to his boyhood sweetheart, Arline, whom he married knowing that she had only a short time to live.Feynman was an eyewitness to some of this century’s key moments of scientific discovery, and Mehra devotes an entire chapter to Feynman’s more philosophical reflections on the implications of these discoveries. Flamboyant and impatient, but dedicated to his vision of a better world throughcooperation and the fearless pursuit of scientific truth, Feynman emerges here as a genius whom fellow Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger remembered as “an honest man; the outstanding intuitionist of our age and a prime example of what may lie in store for anyone who dares to follow the beat of adifferent drum.”

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly The rigorous treatment of Feynman’s science here may reward graduate students in physics but will likely overwhelm other fans of the lively, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who died in 1988. Science writer Mehra, who teaches physics at the Citadel in South Carolina, competently tracks the development of Feynman’s breakthrough work, especially his signature path integral solutions, but awkward syntax and train-wreck chronology distort his subject’s life. The first fifth of the book details Feynman’s early education and family life without capturing a sense of the uniqueness of the youth who was considered a genius sui generis by one of his high school teachers. Many of the plentiful quotes in this work are attributed to secondary sources, especially Feynman’s own popular writings; the general reader may find quantum topics more accessibly examined in the physicist’s own QED and The Feynman Lectures on Physics . In the end, Mehra cannot do justice to the large spirit of his subject, either in his life or work. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The book shares subject and subtitle with James Gleick’s Genius ( LJ 10/1/92) as well as a fair amount of information and anecdotes about Nobel Laureate Richard P. Feynman. The differences are far more significant. Mehra, an author of several books on quantum physics, focuses heavily on Feynman’s theoretical work in a way that makes it impenetrable to nonphysicists. The real comparative shortcoming, though, is that Gleick is a writer first and Mehra a physicist first–and not a polished writer at all. Overlaps of time and information, confusing transitions, the use of three anecdotes where one would serve, and the lack of any ear at all for speech and narrative will make this slow reading for any but the most committed audience–a pity, since Mehra includes quotations from many hours of interviews with Feynman. Collections heavily used by physicists and advanced physics students should probably have this volume; other collections will be better served by Gleick.- Mark Shelton, Athens, OhioCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review ‘As a theoretical physicist with a publication record in the history of quantum mechanics, Mehra seems to be exceptionally well qualified for his task … Feynman’s life story is well told … Mehra’s biography is a useful book … It’s a fount of new information about Feynman, much of it presented in the master’s own voice. For physicists, this may be the preferred biography.’ London Review of Books’If it were possible for anyone to write an authoritative account of the life and science of Richard Feynman, Jagdish Mehra would seem to be the man to do it. Mehra’s biography is a useful book. It’s a fount of new information about Feynman, much of it presented in the master’s own voice.’ London Review of Books’As a theoretical physicist with a publication record in the history of quantum mechanics. mehra seems to be exceptionally well qualified for his task. If it were possible for anyone to write an authoritative account of the life and science of Richard Feynman, Jagdish Mehra would seem to be the man to do it. … a useful book, It’s a fount of new information about Feynman, much of it presented in the master’s own voice.’ London Review of Books, May ’94’pleasure lies in the fact that India’s finest historian of science has produced this outstanding biography’ Shiv Visvanathan, Financial Express`most comprehensive biography written to date … one of most prominent American theoretical physicists of this century’ New technical Books, Jan/Feb 94`a serious biography … Mehra gives a very comprehensive survey of all of Feynman’s achievements in research, teaching and other physics-related activities … also includes interesting surveys of his less well-known activities.’ Times Higher,`the book has several merits. One is the overview it gives of the vast scope of Feynman’s physics … I … recommend it for its wealth of Feynman material (much of which is new), feeding our endless fascination with this irresistable character.’ Michael Berry, University of Bristol, Physics World, August 1994`I really enjoyed this as a ‘holiday read.’ I learnt quite a lot about how this unusual man approached his work, and it stimulated me to chase up Feymna’s own papers….’ Contemporary Physics`very much a theoretical physicist’s account of the life and works of a fellow theoretical physicist and, as such, perhaps gives a more perceptive account of the interplay between Feynman’s personal life and his work than could be given by any non-physicist … a scholarly … work … this is the book on Feynman that should grace your bookshelf.’ Steve Donnelly, The Skeptic, Volume 8, Number 4, 1994 About the Author About the author: Jagdish Mehra is the author of many articles and books on twentieth-centuryphysics, including Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation and the first five volumes (seven books) of The Historical Development of QuantumTheory, with Helmut Rechenburg. The Citadel Distinguished Professor ofPhysics at Charleston, South Carolina, Jadish Mehra received the Humboldt Prize in 1976. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐An excellent book. Provides an in depth look at both the life as well the science of this brilliant man. Lucidly written and keeps you engaged. The most important thing is that even if you don’t understand the full science you can skip those portions and read the portions about his life as standalone chapters. Am absolute must for people interested in history of science and also a great guide to highlight the fact that science and scientist can be very very exciting. Jagdish Mehra does a stupendous job. I would also recommend people to read “Surely you are Joking Mr. Feynman”, as a companion piece.

⭐Nearly 30 years after publication, Mehra’s book remains by far the worst biographyof Feynman that has been written. The writing is disorganized, composed of snippetsof mostly well-known events and anecdotes. The discussion of QED is useless — a setof error-laden equations. Any physicist who understands Feynman’s (and Schwinger’sand Tomonaga’s and Dyson’s) contributions to quantum electrodynamics would besimply appalled at the presentation. And also puzzled at how an Oxford Universitypublication could emerge without apparent technical proof-reading.If you want to learn about Feynman’s life and world outlook, in additionto his three books of autobiographical anecdotes, I would suggest these two:* Gleick’s “Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman”* Sykes’s illustrated book “No Ordinary Genius”.There is an excellent technical biography by Schweber, “QED and the Men Who Made It”of the three physicists who tamed the infinities in QED, plus Dyson who showed thatthe Feynman and Schwinger techniques were equivalent, and extended the analysis ofdiagrams that contribute to the S-matrix.More recently (2012), Lawrence Krauss wrote “Quantum Man: Richard Feynman’sLife in Science”, which is a very readable (by non-physicists) technical biography withlucid discussions of all of Feynman’s contributions. Unlike Einstein and Dirac,Feynman continued to generate novel and useful ideas for his entire life.

⭐I read this book in 1994 (upon the date of publication). My initial response to it was negative; that opinion remains unaltered. This is not a “definitive” book (as it claims to be–dustjacket). The book is discursive, poorly edited, and poorly written. It is surprising to me that this manuscript was accepted for publication.(1) Typos abound: ‘Algebra’ should be written ‘Calculus’ (bottom, page 88), the word ‘magnitudes’ should be replaced by ‘amplitudes’ (page 185). Phrase ‘Varying x–s’ should be written “varying x ‘s ” (page 185).The covariant indices on the metric are altered (lines 22-25, page 505). Diagrams incomplete (page 509).(2) A missed opportunity: On page 262 we are presented the “great identity.” (equation 13.13). Now, the appropriate thing to have shown (in a book such as this) is the method whereby Feynman derived this “great identity” ! Also, read: “the evaluation is not trivial and Feynman used some ingenious tricks…” (page 415). As with the entirety of this book, merely lifting an equation from a paper may show erudition, but it would have been beneficial for a reader to be shown how that equation was arrived at by Feynman !Note: Mehra’s description (pages 168-169, Feynman at Cornell) is almost a copy of the preface of Mathew and Walker’s text “Methods of Mathematical Physics” (1964, 1970), a text “based on lectures of Feynman’s course at Cornell University.”(3) The writing is often uninformative (incorrect ?): “The picture of the bottomless sea is not so disturbing, really…electrons above the sea cannot fall into it because there is no room for them.” (page 207). “Thus, the comparison with the hole theory showed the equivalence of this theory and Feynman’s new theory of positrons.” (page 245). “Feynman used a similar approach…but, he derived is own formulas for conserved quantities, which differed from Emmy Noether’s…His approach was a more general one…” (page 132).Read: “the Lagrangian method can easily be expressed relativistically, on account of the action functional being relativistically invariant.” (page 135, a line which will possess no meaning for the neophyte).(4) Footnotes are sparse, yet humanistic: “Weisskopf…I should have won the Nobel prize.” (see, page 226).The “dirt” (Schwinger toward Feynman) is not espoused beyond its assertion (page 236). An assessment of Kramers is deficient: “Kramers was, himself, not very successful in developing his own ideas concerning the renormalization procedure.” (page 215, but, see books by Dresden and Ter Haar). We do not learn why “Feynman was not able to master a number of things in group theory.” (page 86). Why did Feynman “not like Smythe’s electromagnetism book.” (page 56). How is it that his answers for his 1940 oral exams were incorrect ? (page 118).(5) Diagrams are superfluous (examples: pages 114, 195, 509, 517, 520). Chapters 23 and 24 expound the topics quantum gravity, quantum chromodynamics, and quantum computers. Those topics are covered in roughly 35 pages. Surely, too cursory ! A conclusion here (now) arouses a smile: “maybe around 2010 designers will confront problems arising from the second law of thermodynamics.” (page 539).(6) Conclusion: Merely copying and pasting equations from Feynman’s papers does nothing to inform the reader of Feynman’s achievements. Better that you seek out and study Feynman’s own Lectures and journal articles.

⭐more great insight to this great teacher

⭐Very detailed

⭐Jagdish Mehra leistete bedeutende Beiträge zur Geschichte der Quantenmechanik, von ihm stammt unter anderem das vielbändige Standardwerk ‘The historical development of quantum theory’ (gemeinsam mit H. Rechenberg) – im Zuge seiner Studien zu den Quellen der Quantenmechanik führte er u.a. Interviews mit Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac und Eugene Wigner. Die Idee zu einer wissenschaftlichen Biographie von Richard Fenman reifte eine geraume Zeit; schließlich bot sich im Dezember 1987 eine Gelegenheit, anlässlich eines Kolloquiums über E. Schrödinger am Caltech, dass Mehra mit Feynman etliche Interviews führen konnte, deren letzte im Januar 1988 – wenige Wochen vor Feynmans Tod – stattfanden.Das vorlegende Werk würdigt Richard Feynmans wissenschaftliche Werk genauso, wie dessen außergewöhnliche Persönlichkeit. Ausgestattet mit der Fortune, in den Interviews von Feynman direkt über den Ursprung vieler seiner Arbeiten, Ideen und Unternehmungen erfahren zu haben, stützt sich der Autor aber genauso auf Gespräche und Korrespondenzen mit Familienmitgliedern, Studienkameraden, Lehrern und Kollegen, Feynmans wissenschaftliche und populare Schriften, Briefe und viel andere Dokumente. Aus all diesem umfangreichen Material schuf Mehra ein einzigartiges Werk.Feynmans Herkunft, Schule. College und Studienjahre werden kurz abgerissen, unter Anleitung von A. Wheeler promovierte Feynman 1942 zu eine Thema, dass das Prinzip der kleinsten Wirkung in der Quantenmechanik betraf. Danach war Feynman am Manhattan Project in Los Alamos beteiligt, hier wurde er mit vielen bedeutenden Physikern seiner Zeit persönlich bekannt, darunter Robert Oppenheimer und Hans Bethe; letzterer vermittelte Feynman nach den Krieg eine Stelle als Assistenz- Professor an der Cornell Universität, Bethes eigener Wirkungsstätte.Die folgenden Kapitel befassen sich ausführlich mit der Entwicklung von Feynmans Ideen zur Lösung der Probleme der Quanten Elektrodynamik (QED), vom Stand der QED nach dem Krieg, der Shelter Island Conference, Hans Bethes Ansatz zur Erklärung des Lamb Shifts, der Pocorno Conference, bis hin zum Erscheinen von Feynmans fundamentalen Arbeiten zum ‘space time approach of QED’, und einer Würdigung der Leistungen von Freeman Dyson, der die unterschiedlichen Ansätze von Julian Schwinger, Sin Itiro Tomonaga mit denen von Feynman vergleicht, und ihre Äquivalenz beweist, und damit auch der breiteren Akzeptanz von Feynman Path Integral Methode den Weg bereitet.Richard Feynman wurde 1950 eingeladen, eine Vorlesungsreihe über QED am Caltech zu halten, dabei erhielt er das Angebot, permanent nach Pasadena zu wechseln. Nach einigen Überlegungen, stimmte Feynman zu; nach einem Sabbat Jahr, das er bereits an der Cornell geplant hatte, und das ihn nach Brasilien und Japan führte, zog er nach Kalifornien um. Feynman bemerkt dazu, dass neben dem milden Wetter, auch die Tatsache für seine Entscheidung ausschlaggebend war, dass das Caltech ein Technologie Institut mit mehreren wissenschaftlichen Fakultäten ist, an denen viele interessante Forscher arbeiten.Am Caltech wandte sich Feynman neuen Fragen zu, darunter dem Verständnis der Suprafluidität, der Theorie der schwachen Wechselwirkung, und den verwirrenden Phänomenen der starken Kräfte, die auch einen ganzen Zoo von Elementarteilchen wirken.Die Physik blieb stets Feynmans Hauptinteresse, seine stete Neugier und sein Interesse, den Dingen auf den Grund zu gehen, machten da aber nicht halt: er lotete der physikalischen Grenzen der Leistung von Computern aus, leistete einen viel zitierten frohen Beitrag zur Nanotechnologie und bewertete Schulbücher.Als Hochschullehrer wurde Feynman eine Legende. Anfang der 60iger Jahre war Matthew Sands mit dem Stand des Einführungskurses Physik am Caltech sehr unzufrieden, weder Relativitätstheorie noch Quantenmechanisch wurden n den zwei auch nur erwähnt, er sucht Verbündete zu dessen Modernisierung, und überredete gemeinsam mit Robert Leighton Feynman diesen Kurs zu halten, nach kurzem Zögern willigte Feynman ein, daraus entstanden die berühmten Feynman Lectures on Physics, Feynman wendete all sein Können an, um einen einzigartigen Kurs zu schaffen, er betrachte die Gengenstände oft aus ungewöhnlich Blickwickeln, um den physikalischen Gehalt von Phänomenen möglichst deutlich herausstellen zu können, ihm gelingt es immer wieder, dabei mit minimalen technischen Apparat auszukommen; er versucht dabei, seine Studenten zu eigenständigen Fragen und Denken anzuregen.Die Biographie zeichnet sich durch die gleiche Akribie und wissenschaftliche Genauigkeit, die auch schon Mehras Entwicklung der Quantenmechanik auszeichnete, zudem enthält sie eine der besten Geschichten der QED – durchaus vergleichbar mit Silvan Schwebets ‘QED and the Men who Made it’.Es ist sehr schade, dass dieses ausgezeichnete Buch offenbar nicht mehr beim Verlag erhältlich ist; dieses Exemplar eines Drittanbieters stammt aus einer ‘Ausmusterung’ der Austin Public Library.

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⭐J’ai vu des commentaires négatifs, mais il ne faut pas perdre de vue que M. Mehra (pas Merah, ça lui évitera bien des pbs) est un scientifique, pas un écrivain, et on a dc là un témoignage de 1re main, a priori plutôt destiné évidemment à un public scientifique qui n’a pas eu la chance de côtoyer ou connaître Dick Feynman. Thank you, Jagdish Mehra, american-indian scientific historiography has gained a good testimony with your one. Thanks.

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