Tantas veces he escrito por acá sobre Richard Feynman, y me queda tanto por escribir. Físico brillante, ego inmenso pero sustentado, carismático, siempre moviendo las aguas. Post de ejemplos:

Ciencia, Religión y Verdad, por Richard Feynman (donde comento el mismo libro de hoy)
Richard Feynman por Leonard Susskind

O lean sobre cómo estudió la física cuántica de su tiempo y la extendión en Richard Feynman por Freeman Dyson. Hoy encuentro el origen del título del libro que estoy leyendo: No Ordinary Genius, the Illustrated Richard Feynman. Es una cita de Hans Bethe:

Feynman was a very unusual scientist. I think it is best described by a friend of mine, Marc Kac. In his memoirs he said that there are geniuses of two kinds. He said that I, Hans Bethe, am an ordinary genius, but that Feynman was a magician.

An ordinary genius is a fellow that you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what they have done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. They are, to use mathematical jargon, in the orthogonal complement of where we are and the working of their minds is for all intents and purposes  incomprehensible. Even after we understand what they have done, the process by which they have done it is completely dark. They seldom, if ever, have students because they cannot be emulated and it must be terribly frustrating for a brilliant young mind to cope with the mysterious ways in which the magician's mind works. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest caliber.

—from Enigmas of Chance, Marc Kac, 1985

Varias veces presenté videos de Feynman. Hay un documental que incluye varios de esos videos y comentarios de gente que lo acompañó en su vida. Incluyendo comentarios de Feynman sobre ciencia, su influencia, filosofía y vida, su trabajo en música y arte gráfico, y algo de la historia de sus descubrimientos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzg1CU8t9nw

Ver sus dibujos en:

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=380

Cito una frase que encontré en los comentarios a este video:

"Physics is like sex; sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." -Richard Feynman

Nos leemos!

Angel "Java" Lopez
http://www.ajlopez.com
http://twitter.com/ajlopez