A Celebration of Richard Feynman: Book Readings and Drumming at Brookhaven Lab, May 11

April 12, 2005

UPTON, NY - In honor of the 2005 World Year of Physics, on the birthday of Nobel-Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988), Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, will sponsor readings from Feynman's best-selling books by film and television actor Norman Parker, and a drumming performance and reminiscences of what it was like to drum with Feynman by Ralph Leighton and Tom Rutishauser. The event, called "A Celebration of Richard Feynman," will be held on May 11, at 4 p.m. in the Laboratory's Berkner Hall. The event is free and open to the public. All visitors to the Laboratory age 16 and over must bring a photo ID.

Leighton and Rutishauser played bongos with Feynman, who was an adventurer, drummer, artist and writer, as well as an exceptionally talented physicist. Rutishauser taught actor Alan Alda to play bongos for his role as Feynman in the play QED, and Leighton coauthored with Feynman the bestseller Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman! Parker will bring to life several entertaining stories from that book, and another popular Feynman book, in which Leighton was a contributor, titled What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Richard Feynman was born in New York City and grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens. Encouraged to pursue science by his father, Feynman already had his "personal laboratory" by the age of ten, composed mostly of electric gadgets and components. Feynman eventually entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained a B.Sc. in 1939, and continued his studies at Princeton University, obtaining a Ph.D. in physics in 1942. After earning his doctorate, Feynman joined Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the first atomic bomb.

In 1945, Feynman became a professor of theoretical physics at Cornell University, and, in 1950, he moved on to hold the same title at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He remained at Caltech for the rest of his career, being appointed Richard Chace Tolman Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1959.

Feynman made major contributions to an area of physics known as quantum electrodynamics. For his work in that area, he shared the Nobel Prize in 1965 with Sin-Itiro Tomonaga and Julian Schwinger.

An accomplished writer and teacher, Feynman improved undergraduate physics education at Caltech, where his four years of lectures were collected into a classic three-volume textbook The Feynman Lectures on Physics. Feynman also wrote several physics books geared for a general audience, including The Character of Physical Law and QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, in addition to his popular autobiographical works.

After the explosion of NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger, Feynman was appointed to the Presidential Commission that investigated the causes. He believed that the rubber o-ring seal was unable to expand quickly enough to fully seal joints in the sub-freezing temperatures of the day of the launch, which would result in hot exhaust gases leaking past the joints and burning through the fuel tank filled with liquid hydrogen, thus causing the final disastrous explosion. Determined to make his point to the council members, some of whom were skeptical about finding a cause of the disaster, he performed an experiment before them on live television: He dunked an o-ring in a glass of ice water. The rubber remained highly compressed, and, thus, he proved his point in a dramatic fashion.

The U.S. Postal Service has commemorated Richard Feynman with his photo on a stamp that will be issued on May 4 as part of the "American Scientists" stamp series. The Upton Post Office at Brookhaven Lab will have the stamps available for purchase by May 5.

Call 631 344-2345 for more information. The Laboratory is located on William Floyd Parkway (County Road 46), one-and-a-half miles north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway.

2005-10301  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom