The only person who dared to look directly at the atomic bomb explosion with his naked eyes! This scientist is fascinating

Through reading a book these two days, Tadpole has fallen hopelessly in love with a person, "with a degree of fanaticism no less than any kind of idol worship."

This person is Feynman.

It's not the Feynman in "Where Are We Going, Dad?", but the physicist Richard P. Feynman, but Wu Zhenyu's son's name does come from this. Wu Zhenyu explained in an interview why he gave his son this name:

"Some scientists have great achievements but do not have much fun in life, but the scientist named Feynman is not like that. He knows how to balance his life. I admire those handsome people who do creative things instead of entering the entertainment industry."

Speaking of handsomeness, if Feynman had not been a scientist, his looks would definitely not be inferior to any entertainment star.

△ Handsome from childhood to old age

When it comes to creativity, Feynman is a Nobel Prize winner, a master of physics, and he even reinvented his own set of physics.

△ Feynman and his invention "Feynman diagram" were printed on stamps

Who is Feynman?

Feynman was born in a Jewish family in New York in 1918. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1935 at the age of 17. After graduation, he went to Princeton for graduate and doctoral studies. In 1943, at the age of 24, he joined the secret atomic bomb project "Manhattan Project". After the end of World War II, he taught at Cornell University and California Institute of Technology. In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to quantum electrodynamics. He is known as the most intelligent theoretical physicist after Einstein and the first person to propose the concept of nano. On February 15, 1988, he died of cancer in Los Angeles.

If the above introduction is like an official resume, the following summary of Feynman by an admirer is even warmer:

"There is a weirdo who takes pranks as his mission, but is also rigorous and profound. He is cynical, but always follows his heart without breaking the rules. He loves to look at beautiful girls, but his love story is more tear-jerking than a Qiong Yao movie. He is a radio repairman, a safe decryption expert, a painter, a hand drum player, a Mayan script decryptor, an education expert, an atomic bomb maker, and even a columnist, but he is more widely known as a Nobel Prize winner in physics. He can slay dragons in the sky and fight tigers on the ground, but he doesn't take it seriously and is keen to act cute to the world. Coincidentally, he is also good-looking, and he has a seat among the beautiful and powerful. He is Richard Philip Feynman. - Yuan Le"

He is the most brilliant scientist in the world and also a man of great charisma. How can I not love him?

Now, I will share with you some of Feynman’s amazing behaviors and thoughts.

01

The only person who dared to look directly at the atomic bomb explosion with his naked eyes

Feynman was there when the world's first atomic bomb exploded - and he himself contributed to the explosion. Everyone at the scene was given a pair of sunglasses to avoid damaging their eyes. But Feynman didn't intend to do that! He thought that the only light that could really damage the eyes was ultraviolet light, not strong light. So Feynman hid behind a car windshield - ultraviolet light couldn't pass through the glass - and saw a scene that no one else could see. (As a liberal arts student, the editor couldn't help but despise himself for three seconds.)

"At the end there was a huge orange ball. The center of the explosion was so bright that it turned into an orange ball, and it began to rise, tumbling a little, and the edges of the ball were a little dark. Later you will find that it is actually a large cloud of smoke, and the flames inside are emitting light and heat. All this happened in just one minute. I saw the whole process from bright to dark. I am afraid I am the only person who actually saw this process - the first "Trinity" test. Everyone around me was wearing sunglasses, and people about 10 kilometers away from the test site were asked to lie on the ground with their eyes closed. I am probably the only person who saw the explosion site with my naked eyes."

02

The comedian among scientists

In addition to his extraordinary enthusiasm for science, Feynman also loved to joke with his friends and never tired of it; he was also interested in various worldly pleasures. His admirer Freeman Dyson once said that he was a complete genius and a complete comedian. He liked to play his bongo drums, play pranks or tell stories to make everyone happy.

△Pulling up his pants in public, and doing it so vigorously

△ Feynman had already learned the "scissor hand" long ago

△ When playing the drums, Feynman was able to play 10 beats with one hand and 11 beats with the other hand at the same time. You might as well give it a try. Maybe you will find that quantum electrodynamics is easier in comparison.

03

I have no obligation to fulfill other people's expectations of me.

Feynman was used to explaining things in his own unique way, had his own ideas, and didn't care too much whether others were used to his way of thinking. It was because of this character that Feynman rejected the invitation of Princeton University, which was full of famous scholars at that time, in 1945.

"They must have thought that if they gave me such a job, I would definitely do a great job. But I didn't want to be what they wanted me to be, and I also had a new principle of doing things, that is, I had no obligation to fulfill other people's expectations of me. In this way, I would be more relaxed; I said to myself, you haven't done anything earth-shattering in the past, and you won't do anything great in the future. But I have always liked physics and mathematics, because I studied them with interest, and soon I made some research results, which later helped me win the Nobel Prize."

04

Say "Haha" to the Nobel Prize

A BBC reporter once asked Feynman: Is your work worthy of a Nobel Prize? Feynman responded:

"In fact (laughs) I know nothing about the Nobel Prize... I won't do anything to win it... I don't think it's a big deal that someone from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences thinks my work is worthy of the Nobel Prize - I have already received the reward, the reward is the joy of discovery and seeing people use my research results, these are real rewards, and honor means nothing to me.

...When I was in high school, one of the honors I received was to become a member of the "Arista", which was an organization for good students - well - almost every student wanted to be a member. When I joined this student organization, I found that their meetings were just to sit down and discuss which students were worthy of joining our glorious society. That's it. Then I sat down with them to discuss who would be approved to join next. This thing made me feel very uncomfortable, and I don't know why - the so-called honor - from that day to now, it has bothered me.

I became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, but I eventually left because it was another one of those things where most of the time the members are picking and choosing who’s famous enough to be in. … The whole thing is soured because the purpose of the organization is largely to decide who else gets to have the honor, right? I don’t like honors.”

△Being funny at the Nobel Prize banquet (I won’t bother you)

05

A cross-border expert with a profound understanding of art and painting

As mentioned before, Feynman was not only a genius physicist, he also had a strong interest in many things in the world. He liked to play drums and could reach the level of a professional drummer. He started learning to paint at the age of 60 and sold them, and the buyers did not know his prominent identity.

Just as he conducted scientific research not for honor and bonuses, but purely to discover the laws governing the operation of nature, he liked something just for the pleasure of doing it.

"I wanted to learn painting because I wanted to express my feelings about the beauty of nature. Everything in the world looks so different, but they are surprisingly organized in the same way and obey universal laws. Physics is a kind of mathematics that appreciates the beauty of nature. It is a wonderful feeling to realize the complex structure and movement of atoms. It is a kind of awe - awe for science. I think people can experience this feeling through painting. I can tell others: please feel the beauty of the universe at this moment."

In the above stories, it is not only Feynman's appearance and legendary stories that are fascinating, but also his personality charm that makes people admire him. He used his life to interpret that there is a kind of success called:

"Find true love, be free, and be an interesting person."

Perhaps we will never be able to understand the mysteries of physics in our lifetime, but his interest, curiosity, courage to question, fearlessness of authority, imagination and independent thinking are precious qualities that each of us can learn from him and spread to more people.

Highly praised during his lifetime and still highly respected after his death, Feynman has always been a source of wisdom for people from all walks of life. These classic autobiographical articles of Feynman show his unique ideas and attitudes towards science, education and life, and also tell us that being an interesting person is more difficult and more important than winning a Nobel Prize.

END

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