YOU SURELY WEREN’T JOKING, MR FEYNMAN

graphical) explanation of QED or Quantum Electro Dynamics (those interested in more detail may invest in Feynman’s own QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter), the work for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1965 (along with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, and Julian Schwinger; all three worked on the subject independently). Ottaviani and Myrick’s treatment of some of the basics of QED reinforce my belief that science, especially complex science, is best taught through comics. The book tracks his life through school, MIT, Princeton, his work on the Manhattan Project, Cornell, and Caltech.

From Neils Bohr to Albert Einstein to Robert Oppenheimer, a succession of the 20th century’s greatest physicists make an appearance as minor characters in Feynman, but his association with them, and his own greatness, seem to have very little effect on Feynman, who continued to ask questions, play the bongo (the famous “orange juice” song would sometimes be pulled out after lectures) and have fun.

He died in 1988.

As a physics student in college, my introduction to Richard Feynman was, not surprisingly, through the Feynman Lectures in Physics – three iconic books, in a style different from most textbooks on problem- solving techniques. The tone was conversational; the examples, excellent.

I admit I didn’t make much headway beyond Volume 1, but I did read the semiautobiographical classic, Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! more than once. Beyond the hilarious and sometimes outrageous pranks of a Nobel Laureate (like breaking into safes containing US atomic bomb secrets), I was amazed by his passion for learning new things, his desire to test claims through experiment, and his absolute distrust of authority.

To me, Feynman seemed a little bit like a grown-up version of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn – a natural storyteller, curious, smart, mischievous and frank. Also, being the tinkerer of the family, opening up every electronic appliance at home, I could relate to the book’s story about repairing radios!

I should say that while preparing to write this piece, I re-read Surely You’re Joking…, and honestly, was not as enamoured by it as when I first read it as an 18-year-old. Some stories suggest he was rather arrogant, with little respect for people not as intelligent as himself. Even worse, a few anecdotes portray him as a sleazy womaniser! Seen through a 21stcentury lens, they seem a tad offensive, even though they present an honest human side of a brilliant person.

However, there are several serious themes beneath the caricatures and cartoons that are relevant even today. Feynman would have been 100 this month, and I’d like to believe that those themes are more important than the idea of a showman scientist. Feynman had strong views on science education, and was an outspoken critic of pseudoscience, both topics of discussion in India today. His criticisms of school science education in Brazil in the 1950s – a system dependent on rote learning, focused on passing tests rather than using science to understand the world – certainly still ring true.

In 1964 Feynman was asked to help review California’s school-level mathematics textbooks. He expressed his reservations with the way topics were being taught with no connection to their applications in the real world. He also wrote about the need to encourage flexibility in problem solving, saying students should get “much greater freedom in obtaining the answer — but, of course, no freedom as to what the right answer should be”.

One of his most famous addresses was before the US National Science Teachers Association, in 1966, where he not only presented his response to the question of “What is Science?” but also advocated for making students think like scientists, encouraging them to be both openminded and questioning of findings.

Feynman’s creative, humourous style of storytelling made him a great science communicator. He spoke with an infectious enthusiasm – whether it was the analysis of the rubber O-rings responsible for the Challenger space shuttle disaster or the ‘Plenty of Room at the Bottom’ talk outlining the field of nanotechnology. Some of his most scathing remarks have been in talks debunking pseudoscience. Time and again, he spoke of the need for scientific integrity, in conducting experiments, reporting data, and not allowing results to be selectively presented, especially when giving governments advice.

In Feynman’s own words, science is “a long history of learning how to not fool ourselves”. You surely weren’t joking, Mr Feynman. Your words are still relevant today.

(Arnab Bhattacharya is the chair of science popularisation and public outreach at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai) Feynman’s semi-autobiographical works include th iconic Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? They make his life sound so breezy and straightforward, you’ll wonder wh you’re not a Nobel Prize-winning physicist yourself.

James Gleick’s definitive 1992 biography, Genius, is a book about a scientist by a science writer who makes the man and his work both comprehensible and contextualised. For emphasis on technical material there’s Jagdish Mehra’s 1994 book The Beat of a Different Drum.

The 1996 film Infinity covers the physicist’s early life. Matthew Broderick directed, produced and played Feynma

The BBC TV movie The Challenger traced Feynman’s role in investigating the 1986 NASA disaster, in which seven astronauts were killed. The 2013 film recreates Feynman’s pursuit of the truth despite opposition from NASA, and the toll it took on his failing health.

In Feynman’s Rainbow, physicist Leonard Mlodinow grapples with intellectual insecurities and self-doubt at Caltech in the early 1980s, finding a friend in the ageing Dr Feynman.

In 1965, Caltech asked Feynman to rewrite their undergrad ate physics course. The famous Feynman Lectures on Physic remain the best introduction to what was known about th subject in the mid-1960s.

The BBC featured Feynman on an episode of their popular documentary show Horizon. When The Pleasu of Finding Things Out aired in 1982 it was a surprise hit. Viewers loved the idea of a scientist discussing life, philosophy and the science contained within the beaut a flower.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is also the title of collection of his short works. It includes his famous lectu What Is And What Should Be the Role of Scientific Cultur Modern Society.

Some of his non-technical 1963 lectures on the relation ship between religion and science, and pseudoscience hav been produced as a short book, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist. If you’re interested in the nature of reality, try Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces. If you can stomach more technical ideas, there’s his Six Not-So-Easy Pieces. But your best chance to understand the nature of light and energy without a Physics PhD is probably his QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter.

QED, a two-character play about a fictional day in the life of an ageing Feynman premiered in 2001 and was staged on Broadway. Actor Alan Alda played Feynman.

There’s even an opera. Feynman premiered in 2005, with a percussion quartet backing a solo baritone Dr Feynman as hi life story unfolds onstage. They did not play the bongos, unfortunately.

See ‘Curious and Comic’ for more on the 2011 graphic novel, Feynman.