1 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,240 Richard Feynman was one of the most extraordinary scientists 2 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:12,160 of the 20th century. 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,160 As a brilliant physicist, 4 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,640 he pioneered an entirely new area of his subject. 5 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,880 He's discovered a new law of nature, only a very few people did that. 6 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:25,160 The most numerically precise physical theory ever invented. 7 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:29,600 Yet, he scorned the Nobel Prize he received for this work. 8 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:31,440 I've already got the prize. 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:33,880 The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out. 10 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:35,320 The kick in the discovery. 11 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:38,360 Feynman's brilliance helped shape history. 12 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,560 As a young man, he helped to build the atom bomb, 13 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:43,760 ending the Second World War. 14 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:47,080 And yet, throughout his life, Feynman rejected authority 15 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:48,920 and refused to conform, 16 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:51,960 preferring instead to follow his passions - 17 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:54,000 from bongo playing to biology, 18 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:56,000 from poetry to painting, 19 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,400 from computing to cracking safes. 20 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,360 Feynman's fascination with the world knew no bounds. 21 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:04,640 And in his dying days, 22 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:08,360 as a maverick investigator on the Challenger shuttle disaster, 23 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:10,960 he confronted the Washington establishment 24 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:13,920 to reveal the truth about what went wrong. 25 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,960 This stuff that I got out of your seal, 26 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:18,800 and I put it in ice water. 27 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:22,520 Above all, Feynman's infectious enthusiasm for life 28 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,280 captivated millions of readers and viewers. 29 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,680 Feynman's been a showman pretty much his whole life. 30 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,920 Any room he walked into, everyone is looking at him. 31 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:33,800 He was the centre of attention. 32 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,480 Electrons behave exactly the same in this respect as protons. 33 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:43,400 That is, they're both screwy, but in exactly the same way. 34 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,040 Here, in his own words and those of the people who knew him best, 35 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:51,880 this is the story of the most captivating communicator 36 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,120 in the history of science. 37 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:57,280 But you got to stop and think about the complexity, 38 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,000 the INCONCEIVABLE nature of nature! 39 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,280 When my mother was pregnant first, 40 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,400 my father said, "If he's a boy, 41 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:29,880 "I want him to be a scientist." 42 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:36,040 Richard Phillips Feynman was born on the 11th May 1918, 43 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:38,000 during the Depression, 44 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,480 to working-class parents living in the outskirts of New York. 45 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,120 Even when I was a small boy, 46 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,360 Poppa used to sit me on his lap 47 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,240 and read to me from the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 48 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:55,680 And he would read, say, about dinosaurs. 49 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:57,480 It would say something like, 50 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,960 "This thing is 25 feet high 51 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:03,800 "and the head is six feet across." 52 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,120 And so, he'd stop always and say, "Let's see what that means. 53 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,200 "That would mean that if he stood in our front yard, 54 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,560 "he would be high enough to put his head through the window. 55 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,760 "But not quite, cos the head is a little bit too wide." 56 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,080 It was very exciting and interesting to think 57 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:23,080 that there were animals of such magnitude, 58 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:25,000 and that they all died out 59 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,480 and at that time, nobody knew why. 60 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:31,440 So that's the way I was educated by my father. 61 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,240 By the age of ten, Richard had his own science laboratory at home, 62 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:39,320 where he tinkered with old radios 63 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:41,760 and experimented with physics. 64 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,640 He hired me, for four cents a week, 65 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,360 as his lab assistant, 66 00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:51,920 to amaze his friends. 67 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:54,160 You know, there was a spark gap 68 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:55,960 with voltage against it... 69 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,480 ..and if you put your finger in, 70 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:01,640 you get a shock. 71 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:04,520 It was my job, as part of my four cents, 72 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:09,280 to put my finger in this spark gap for his friends' amusement. 73 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:14,880 Their father, Melville Feynman, 74 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:17,840 worked for a company which made uniforms. 75 00:04:17,840 --> 00:04:22,120 This exposure to the military led to a strong rejection of authority, 76 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,440 a value he instilled in his son. 77 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,280 One of the things that my father taught me was a disrespect. 78 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,120 He'd open a picture, a New York Times, maybe it was a General, 79 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,720 and he'd say, "Now, look at these humans," he'd say. 80 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:39,680 "Here's one human standing here and all these others are bowing. 81 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:42,360 "Now, what is the difference? Why are they all bowing to him? 82 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:44,520 "Only because of his name and his position. 83 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:45,800 "Because of his uniform. 84 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:48,360 "Not because of something he especially did." 85 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:56,120 At the age of 17, Feynman won a maths competition in New York 86 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:58,200 and it became clear this was a subject 87 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:00,840 in which he was greatly gifted. 88 00:05:00,840 --> 00:05:04,240 In 1935, he was awarded a place 89 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:08,720 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. 90 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,240 But away from home for the first time, 91 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,000 he was going to miss more than just his family. 92 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:18,520 She was very beautiful, 93 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:20,360 Arline Greenbaum, 94 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,080 the most beautiful girl on the beach. 95 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:29,640 She had great dimples and long hair down to here, when she unbraided it. 96 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:32,480 Oh, we loved her! 97 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,720 They were not officially engaged, she was only 15. 98 00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:37,560 She was sweet. 99 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:40,400 We all loved her, she loved all of us. 100 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,560 From MIT, Feynman moved to Princeton, 101 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,960 achieving full marks in the maths and physics entrance exam - 102 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:52,960 an unprecedented feat. 103 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:59,560 But back home, things weren't as perfect. 104 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:05,760 The family went away for a spring vacation 105 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,200 with Arline. 106 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:10,320 We went swimming 107 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,520 and my father saw this lump on Arline's neck 108 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,080 and said to her, "What is that?" 109 00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:20,720 And she didn't know, but she went to a doctor 110 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,240 and it was the tuberculosis. 111 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:27,160 We were all heartbroken. 112 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,880 It was before there was any medicine for it. 113 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:34,920 And although she was sick and dying, he married her, 114 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,280 because he wanted to take care of her. 115 00:06:38,280 --> 00:06:40,320 It was very hard on my mother, 116 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:43,560 because she was afraid he would catch tuberculosis. 117 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:46,200 But... 118 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:50,680 ..my mother wasn't given a choice. 119 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:56,760 The couple braced themselves for life in the shadow of TB. 120 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,640 But another menace was about to disrupt their time together. 121 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,080 Just months before Richard and Arline were married, 122 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,400 America was drawn into the Second World War, 123 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:21,600 following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. 124 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:27,640 Feynman was asked if he wanted to join a top-secret project 125 00:07:27,640 --> 00:07:31,280 based in a Government laboratory at Los Alamos, in New Mexico. 126 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:35,080 Code-named Manhattan, 127 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,520 its objective was to build an atom bomb. 128 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:40,840 The fear was that Germany 129 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:43,680 would invent such a terrifying new weapon first 130 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:45,240 and use it to win the war. 131 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:51,480 There was nothing that I knew that indicated 132 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:53,880 that if we could do it, they couldn't do it 133 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,680 and therefore, it was very important to try to cooperate. 134 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,280 Germany was the centre, 135 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:03,000 the intellectual centre of theoretical physics. 136 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,480 They knew the power of this - that if Germany got this first, 137 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,480 we have to make sure that they don't rule the world. 138 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:17,000 I felt I should do in order to protect civilisation, if you want. 139 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:22,520 Feynman became a member of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. 140 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,960 Here, he joined some of the world's finest physicists, 141 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,400 pooling their combined brainpower to try to create the bomb. 142 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:38,920 Oppenheimer was in charge of the scientific or engineering side. 143 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:41,320 And he was quite a heavyweight. 144 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:44,240 Fermi, Niels Bohr... 145 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:48,120 You know, the big names of extremely high level. 146 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:51,760 Despite being surrounded by extraordinary physicists, 147 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,400 the challenge of developing an atom bomb so quickly 148 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:57,600 was an enormous undertaking. 149 00:08:57,600 --> 00:08:59,480 One fundamental problem 150 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,240 was the sheer volume of calculations required. 151 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,120 Without computers, it had to be done manually, 152 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:08,160 slowing progress enormously. 153 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,080 That was, until Feynman arrived. 154 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:16,160 He found a way to get calculations going in parallel. 155 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:22,000 Still manually, still each person doing one operation at a time, 156 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,920 but working in parallel and then, 157 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:29,480 having the parts of the calculation come back together later, 158 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:33,200 so that three problems in nine months got turned around 159 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:36,560 to nine big problems done in three months. 160 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:41,080 'I put on the blackboard a challenge, "Can we do it?", to the boys. 161 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,840 'They all start, "Yes, we'll work double shifts, we'll work overtime," 162 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:46,520 '"We'll try it!" 163 00:09:46,520 --> 00:09:49,840 'As a result, we did problems nearly ten times as fast.' 164 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:54,720 He somehow got this team of human computers 165 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,360 to work at an inhuman pace 166 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:59,080 and got things to roll. 167 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,880 And that was when his scientific seniors, 168 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:04,520 the big shots of science at that time, 169 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,720 first became aware of this fellow. 170 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:09,360 Despite being a key member 171 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:12,400 of the most secret Government project of the war, 172 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:16,080 Feynman's streak of maverick mischief was never far away. 173 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:20,480 'So I used to pick the locks all the time 174 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:22,760 'and point out that it was very easy to do, 175 00:10:22,760 --> 00:10:26,000 'and every time we had a meeting of the whole...everybody together, 176 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,640 'I'd get up and I'd say that we have important secrets 177 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:32,280 'and we shouldn't keep them in such thing. We need better locks!' 178 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,800 Between safecracking and doing physics calculations, 179 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:40,120 the pace of life at Los Alamos was relentless. 180 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,040 But for Feynman, it was a welcome distraction. 181 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:47,440 In a sanatorium nearby, 182 00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,960 his wife Arline was confined to her bed, 183 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:53,000 slowly dying of her disease. 184 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:57,080 At that time, 185 00:10:57,080 --> 00:11:00,840 dry climates were believed to be good for tuberculosis. 186 00:11:00,840 --> 00:11:04,200 So although he was at high altitude, 187 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:07,240 she was at a lower altitude, in a hospital. 188 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:11,680 I remember the day she died. 189 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:15,120 She was 25. 190 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,600 He was 27. 191 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:22,760 He was broken-hearted. 192 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:31,840 Then, in the aftermath of his grief, 193 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,640 Feynman was forced to confront the reality 194 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:36,880 of what he had helped create. 195 00:11:40,320 --> 00:11:43,560 'They gave out dark glasses that you could watch it with. 196 00:11:43,560 --> 00:11:45,000 '20 miles away, 197 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,840 'you are not going to see a damn thing through dark glasses. 198 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:50,920 'Well, I figured the only thing that could really hurt your eyes, 199 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:54,200 'bright light never can hurt your eyes, is ultraviolet light that does. 200 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:56,640 'So I got behind a truck windshield, 201 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,040 'so the ultraviolet can't go through glass, so that would be safe 202 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:02,040 'and so, I could see the damn thing. 203 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:10,680 'I'm about the only guy in the world 204 00:12:10,680 --> 00:12:14,440 'that actually looked at the damn thing in the first Trinity test.' 205 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:38,400 Three weeks later, America prepared to detonate a second atom bomb. 206 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:40,800 This time, it wasn't a test. 207 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:43,520 He had been... 208 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:49,200 ..expected to go as the scientist, 209 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,200 with the first flight. 210 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,680 But the bomb was so successful, 211 00:12:56,680 --> 00:13:02,560 they decided they didn't need a scientist, so he did not go. 212 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,240 Otherwise, he would have been in that plane. 213 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:15,480 The bomb exploded above the Japanese city of Hiroshima, 214 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,480 on the 6th August 1945. 215 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:20,960 It killed more than 80,000 people. 216 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:26,160 Three days later, a second bomb was detonated - at Nagasaki. 217 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:31,840 There was a very considerable elation and excitement. 218 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:36,520 And there was kind of parties and people got drunk and... 219 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:45,160 ..it would make a tremendously interesting contrast 220 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:47,520 of what was going on in Los Alamos 221 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,160 at the same time as what was going on in Hiroshima. 222 00:13:51,160 --> 00:13:53,960 Feynman was deeply disturbed by the knowledge 223 00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:56,520 he had contributed to the deaths of so many. 224 00:13:58,560 --> 00:14:03,440 He had had this great triumph on the technical level at Los Alamos, 225 00:14:03,440 --> 00:14:07,440 and then, of course, a terrible let down afterwards... 226 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,960 ..having run this tremendous race, and then, at the end of it, 227 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:14,960 concluding that it wasn't, in fact... 228 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:18,480 ..worthwhile. 229 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:21,320 In the months after this double trauma - 230 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:23,240 first, losing his wife, 231 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:26,600 then, realising the destruction he'd helped unleash, 232 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:29,160 Feynman was thrown into darkness. 233 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,600 Maybe from just the bomb itself, 234 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,840 and maybe for some other psychological reasons, 235 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,400 I had just lost my wife, 236 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,000 I was really in a kind of depressive condition. 237 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:58,960 In the autumn of 1945, 238 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:01,640 Feynman was invited to become a professor 239 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:04,960 in the Physics Department at Cornell University. 240 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,200 But he was still shaken by the events of the summer. 241 00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:11,120 They expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this, 242 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:12,640 and I wasn't wonderful. 243 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:15,880 I though to myself, "I haven't done anything important. 244 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,840 "And I'm never going to do anything important." 245 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:22,480 But I used to enjoy physics and mathematical things 246 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,680 and because I used to play with it, it was never very important. 247 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:28,040 But I used to do things for the fun of it. 248 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:30,880 So I decided, I'm going to do things only for the fun of it. 249 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:35,640 While Feynman was rediscovering the fun in physics, 250 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:38,320 science was in crisis. 251 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:42,240 For many years, new discoveries about how atoms behave 252 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:44,960 had been throwing physics into turmoil. 253 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,880 Old assumptions about the world were being proved wrong. 254 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:55,240 This new problematic area of physics was christened Quantum Mechanics. 255 00:15:57,360 --> 00:15:59,320 Quantum Mechanics, in a lot of ways, 256 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,760 was the most profound psychological shock 257 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:04,680 that physicists have ever had in all of history. 258 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:06,400 Newton was not right. 259 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:09,320 You can know everything there is to know about the world 260 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,520 and yet, you cannot predict with perfect accuracy 261 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:14,760 what will happen next. 262 00:16:14,760 --> 00:16:17,600 Quantum Mechanics had revealed the problems 263 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,360 of accurately predicting how atoms 264 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:23,080 and their electromagnetic forces would behave. 265 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,840 And because these are the fundamental building blocks 266 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,000 of nature, it threw everything else into doubt too. 267 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,880 Everything that happens around you, other than gravity, 268 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:39,360 all the immediately experienceable parts of the world, 269 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,600 are electromagnetism at work. 270 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,480 When two atoms get together to form a molecule, 271 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:49,600 that's electromagnetism, so all of chemistry is electromagnetism. 272 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:52,360 And if that means all of chemistry is electromagnetism, 273 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:54,160 then, guess what? 274 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,600 All of biology is electromagnetism. 275 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:01,680 Literally, everything around us is a manifestation of electromagnetism 276 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:03,280 one way or another. 277 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:09,720 A new field, called Quantum Electro-Dynamics, or QED, emerged 278 00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,440 to try to make sense of electromagnetism 279 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:14,480 and sub-atomic matter. 280 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,760 Sometimes QED seemed to work, 281 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,360 but other times, its predictions were way off. 282 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:25,480 It was all crazy, it didn't make any sense. It gave you infinity. 283 00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,840 Infinity is not an answer. Nothing is infinity. 284 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:30,680 We don't measure in the lab infinity, you get a finite answer. 285 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,360 You can't have your basic fundamental theory of physics 286 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:35,400 give you infinity. 287 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:37,400 These predictions of infinity 288 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:40,960 were stumping the smartest physicists on the planet. 289 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:45,200 Even the father of QED, Paul Dirac, was foxed. 290 00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:48,000 When I was a kid, I read Dirac's book, 291 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:51,000 and he had these problems that nobody knew how to solve 292 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:52,280 which he described there. 293 00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,280 I couldn't understand the book very well 294 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:56,120 because I really wasn't up to it. 295 00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:59,360 But there, in the last paragraph at the end of the book, it said, 296 00:17:59,360 --> 00:18:02,400 "Some new ideas are here needed." 297 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:05,160 And so, there I was, some new ideas were needed. 298 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,040 OK, so I started to think of new ideas. 299 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:09,920 Perhaps typically, 300 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:13,960 Feynman's inspiration for his new ideas was unconventional. 301 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:17,480 When I was eating lunch, 302 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:20,480 some kid threw up a plate in the cafeteria 303 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,760 which has a blue medallion on the plate, 304 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,680 the Cornell sign in the cafeteria. 305 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,400 And as he threw up the plate and it came down, 306 00:18:29,400 --> 00:18:33,640 it wobbled and the blue thing went around like this. 307 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,280 And I wondered what the relation was between the two. 308 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:37,520 See, I was just playing. 309 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:39,440 No importance at all. 310 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,600 So I played around with the equations 311 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:44,480 of motion of rotating things. 312 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,280 And I kept continuing to play with it. 313 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:50,160 And this rotation lead me to a similar problem 314 00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:52,360 of the rotational of the spin of the electron 315 00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:54,200 according to Dirac's equations. 316 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:55,800 And that just lead me back 317 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,640 into quantum electro-dynamics 318 00:18:57,640 --> 00:18:59,000 Everything just poured out. 319 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:00,520 It was just like letting a cork 320 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:01,880 out of a bottle. 321 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:07,360 Inspired by the spinning plate, 322 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:11,240 Feynman realised that the fact the equations resulted in infinity 323 00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,720 didn't mean they were wrong. 324 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:17,400 The problem just needed to be looked at from a new perspective. 325 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,480 It turns out that that kind of challenge was perfectly suited 326 00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:22,520 for someone like Richard Feynman, 327 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:26,680 who, surprisingly maybe, didn't like to speculate. 328 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,760 He wasn't the kind of modern physicist that we celebrate 329 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:32,520 who's always coming up with a new theory of the multi-verse 330 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,240 or forces of nature or whatever. 331 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:37,120 He really liked to work in the context 332 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:39,320 of things that were supposed to be understood 333 00:19:39,320 --> 00:19:42,160 and just understand them better than anybody else. 334 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,040 To work around the infinites in QED, 335 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,280 Feynman came up with a truly revolutionary idea. 336 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,920 It was such a strange solution not even his sister, 337 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,160 by then, a physicist herself, 338 00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,200 recognised it as serious work. 339 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,160 Richard said to me, "Would you go in the room and get my papers? 340 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,120 "I want to start working and my papers are in there." 341 00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:09,600 So I went in the room, and I looked... 342 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,480 there was no mathematics, it was these silly little diagrams, 343 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,080 and I came out and said, 344 00:20:16,080 --> 00:20:17,960 "Richard, I can't find your papers, 345 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:19,720 "it's just these kind 346 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:21,480 "of silly diagrams." 347 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:24,600 He says, "That is my work!" 348 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,120 The simple little diagrams Feynman had invented 349 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:36,160 were a brilliant way to sidestep the complicated calculations 350 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:38,000 required for QED. 351 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,840 They were a sort of shortcut, 352 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,840 allowing him to avoid the infinities 353 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,280 and make meaningful predictions about the world. 354 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:48,960 He saw that there was actually a sort of pictorial way 355 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,360 of thinking about these pictures, these equations. 356 00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:54,600 You could associate a little cartoon, 357 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:57,720 a little Feynman diagram, as we now call them, 358 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,160 to every one of these terms in the equation. 359 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:03,520 Other people would have to work for months 360 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:05,200 and he would get it in an afternoon. 361 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:07,720 And eventually, that's what got his ideas noticed, 362 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:09,680 because he's getting the right answer 363 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:11,560 and he's doing it much simpler, 364 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:15,000 even though no-one understood what he was doing. 365 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,080 It turns out to be so useful that now we're applying it 366 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:21,440 to completely different fields that aren't particle physics at all. 367 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:23,640 When we look at the evolution of galaxies 368 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:25,720 and large scale structure in the universe, 369 00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:27,560 we're finding that Feynman diagrams 370 00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:31,240 are a helpful way of calculating those quantities as well. 371 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:36,800 Quantum Electrodynamics, 372 00:21:36,800 --> 00:21:39,760 which is the theory that Feynman put the finishing touches on, 373 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:44,000 is the most numerically precise physical theory ever invented. 374 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:52,160 In recognition of this work, in 1965, 375 00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:54,880 Feynman was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics. 376 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,400 He shared it with two other physicists, 377 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,160 Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, 378 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:03,520 who were also working on the same problem. 379 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,240 Was it worth a Nobel Prize? 380 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:15,720 I don't know. 381 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:19,800 I don't know anything about the Nobel Prize. 382 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,840 I don't understand what it's all about or what's worth what 383 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,480 and if the people in the Swedish Academy decide 384 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,720 that X, Y or Z wins the Nobel Prize, then so be it! 385 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,560 I think it was entirely right and proper. 386 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:36,040 It was one of the best-earned Nobel Prizes 387 00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:39,040 there ever was, I would say. 388 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:44,240 I don't see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy 389 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,640 decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize. 390 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:49,240 I've already got the prize. 391 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,040 The prize is the pleasure of finding the thing out. 392 00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:53,640 The kick in the discovery. 393 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:55,720 The observation other people use it. 394 00:22:57,280 --> 00:22:59,360 Those are the real things! 395 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,680 The honours are unreal to me. 396 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:04,840 I don't believe in honours. 397 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,640 It bothers me. Honours bothers me! 398 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:09,720 Honours is epaulettes. Honours is uniforms. 399 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,800 My Poppa brought me up this way. I can't stand it. It hurts me. 400 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:30,040 In 1959, on a trip to Europe, 401 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,080 Feynman met Yorkshire woman Gweneth Howarth. 402 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:35,680 A year later, they were married. 403 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,600 Back in California, now Professor of Physics at Caltech, 404 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:42,440 Richard and Gweneth started a family. 405 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,760 I got a kick, when I was a boy, of my father telling me things, 406 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:50,960 so I tried to tell my son things that were interesting about the world. 407 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:52,800 He was an excellent father. 408 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,480 Always up to explaining things or do things. 409 00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:59,920 We would go on walks after dinner, my father and I, 410 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:02,640 and talk about things and...and it was, you know, 411 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:04,640 it was wonderful and delightful. 412 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,920 I asked him about things and he tried to explain them. 413 00:24:16,360 --> 00:24:20,280 Physics and math and history and politics and science fiction 414 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:22,680 and life, the universe and everything. 415 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,600 I'm very lucky that I got to do that two or three times a week. 416 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:30,400 Say, "Let's go for a walk." Sure! 417 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:36,400 Growing up with Richard Feynman as your dad was never dull, 418 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,920 particularly if you were his teenage daughter. 419 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:45,560 My parents ordered a car, a van that we could all go camping in, 420 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,440 and they had it painted, 421 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,280 which was so...so odd, 422 00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,440 because they weren't like this at all. 423 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:58,080 My father may have been immune to embarrassment, 424 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,240 but I certainly was not! 425 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,720 And they had, you know, the diagrams painted on it. 426 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,560 So most people thought they were Indian designs, 427 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,360 but I remember once we'd just gone to McDonalds 428 00:25:09,360 --> 00:25:12,440 and we were in the parking lot and walking out to the car, 429 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,800 and someone asked us, "Why is your van covered in Feynman diagrams?" 430 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,320 And Mother says, "Because we're the Feynmans!" 431 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,560 Feynman's reputation as a communicator of science 432 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,440 was spreading around the world. 433 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:28,560 In the early 1960s, 434 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,320 he began presenting lectures for the public, which were televised. 435 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:42,720 APPLAUSE 436 00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:52,520 I'm going to discuss how we would look for a new law. 437 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,320 In general, we look for a new law by the following process. 438 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,320 First, we guess it. 439 00:25:57,320 --> 00:25:58,920 LAUGHTER 440 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:01,440 Don't laugh. That's really true. 441 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,200 Then we compute the consequences of the guess. 442 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:06,200 If it disagrees with the experiment... 443 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:10,240 ..it's wrong. 444 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,480 In that simple statement is the key to science. 445 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:16,240 It doesn't make a difference how beautiful your guess is. 446 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,640 It doesn't make a difference how smart you are, 447 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:20,680 who made the guess, or what his name is. 448 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:23,640 If it disagrees with the experiment, it's wrong. 449 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:25,640 That's all there is to it. 450 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:27,200 LAUGHTER 451 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,760 Caltech invited him to re-write the physics curriculum 452 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,120 for undergraduates. His new course, 453 00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:37,160 spanning the entire history of physics, 454 00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,080 became known as 'The Feynman Lectures.' 455 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:45,480 All these lectures had a certain amount of excitement... 456 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,440 and an element of what you might call 457 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,360 solid showbiz demonstration. 458 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:54,640 I'm sure you're all familiar with the joke 459 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,680 about the fact that the average family in the United States 460 00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:59,880 seems to have two-and-a-half children. 461 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:03,320 It doesn't mean that there's a half a child in any family, whatever, 462 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:04,760 the children come in lumps! 463 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:06,360 LAUGHTER 464 00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:09,320 He was very visual. He told jokes. 465 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:14,000 He had a unique way of explaining things 466 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,520 and sometimes that was a slight problem 467 00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,400 because he was so engaging, you'd walk out of a lecture thinking, 468 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,520 "Well, that all made complete sense." 469 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,720 But, of course, five minutes later, you couldn't really remember all the connections. 470 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,960 You were just swept along by Feynman's personality, 471 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,720 by his humour, by his analogies. 472 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,640 Graduate students started idolising him, 473 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:42,200 but by the 1960s his course here at Caltech was very famous. 474 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,520 Outside science, Feynman's interests were also flourishing. 475 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:51,080 He'd become an accomplished bongo player. 476 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:53,760 And he developed a love of painting and drawing, 477 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:55,960 based on a close friendship 478 00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,840 with renowned Californian artist, Jirayr Zorthian. 479 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:05,680 "Jirayr", he said. "You don't know a thing about physics, 480 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,280 "and I don't know a thing about art. 481 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,560 "And yet we both admire Leonardo Da Vinci. 482 00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:16,040 "What do you say, we become two Leonardo da Vincis? 483 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:20,400 He said, "One Sunday I will give you a day of physics 484 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,760 "and the following Sunday, you give me a day of art. 485 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:28,040 When he started, he was absolutely an amateur. 486 00:28:28,040 --> 00:28:31,680 Just very, very...crude. 487 00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:35,960 He drew a picture of me when I was, 488 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:38,400 when I was young and very fidgety, 489 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,880 and, and it just has, you know he just has my, my head, 490 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:48,120 some hair, and then, and then like my hands up here, 491 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:53,120 so clearly I was kind of like, "Oh, I don't really want to do this." 492 00:28:53,120 --> 00:28:58,120 It's pure with his, um, that he can see the gesture. 493 00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:03,600 I think he maybe got a kick out of working with his hands, 494 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:10,680 but particularly the pen and doing features of people. 495 00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:14,960 In the end, he became a very accomplished draftsman. 496 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,200 So enthusiastic an art student was Feynman, 497 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:27,440 that he took to spending time in Giannoni's, a strip bar in Pasadena. 498 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:31,000 Here, he divided his attention between sketching the girls 499 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,640 and solving physics equations. 500 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,320 Other physicists couldn't understand it. 501 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:43,200 And say, "You know, Feynman is supposed to be a physicist 502 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,040 "and he is a brilliant, brilliant physicist 503 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:52,760 "and we need his input very often in Caltech. 504 00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:57,000 "We need him to talk to us about physics. 505 00:29:57,000 --> 00:29:59,240 But what does he do? 506 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:05,520 He goes off and spends all his time with go-go girls, 507 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:08,800 bongo drummers and artists. 508 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,560 He wastes so much time. 509 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:15,280 'I don't see what they give him.' 510 00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:20,640 'But I think that Feynman got a lot out of these people 511 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,800 'and it enriched his life.' 512 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,880 In the 1960s, Feynman took a sabbatical year. 513 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,680 But instead of heading for a different physics department 514 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:36,200 the other side of the country, he simply crossed the Caltech campus 515 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:40,480 to study an area which had long fascinated him - viruses. 516 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,040 During this time, he also became fascinated 517 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:46,760 by the social structure of ants 518 00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:50,880 and enthralled by the potential applications of nanotechnology. 519 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:58,960 In the long term of what he wanted to do this year and next year, 520 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,520 he would think about... 521 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,000 figuring out some secret of the universe, 522 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:07,080 but in terms of day-to-day or hour-to-hour 523 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:11,280 he was always guided by, what seemed interesting and fun 524 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:16,120 and just sort of an intuition for the right thing to work on. 525 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:21,520 In the early 1980s, his son Carl's budding career 526 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,760 in the emerging field of super computers proved irresistible. 527 00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:31,040 He signed up for a summer job at Carl's start-up company in Boston. 528 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:34,680 'We were a bunch of MIT students starting a company.' 529 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,320 So, the first day we start the company, 530 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,720 literally, I get this knock on the door, I open the door. 531 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,400 And he showed up and he said, "Feynman reporting for duty, what should I do?" 532 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:47,520 Salutes. 533 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,000 I think, "Uh oh, I haven't figured out what I'll do with this guy!" 534 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,840 I mean, I've got a Nobel Prize winning great physicist... 535 00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,680 So, I've had a quick meeting 536 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:02,560 and trying to come up with some project that was worthy of Feynman. 537 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:05,880 So, some people said, "We want you to think about applications 538 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:08,040 "of our parallel computing." 539 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:12,440 The application of parallel processing to quantum croma-dynamics. 540 00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:16,720 He said, "No, come on, that's, that's nonsense, you know." 541 00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,960 "What do you really want me to do? 542 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:22,040 And, I said, "Well, actually, you know 543 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:24,440 "we don't really have any pencils or paper..." 544 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,920 He said, "Right, I'll go out and buy some!" 545 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:31,120 So, his first duty was to go out and buy the stationery for the company. 546 00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,320 All the paper clips and pencils and so on. 547 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,480 That was his first assignment. 548 00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:41,560 'Thinking Machines', as the company was called, 549 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,760 would go on to become a major player 550 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:46,640 in the world of Parallel Super-computing, 551 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,080 with Feynman applying his methods of shortening calculations, 552 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:55,320 developed in the 1940s, to the new digital age. 553 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:57,960 And as always, working with Feynman 554 00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:00,800 was filled with welcome distractions. 555 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,880 We both liked spaghetti, because it was easy to cook, 556 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:10,320 and I ask him why it was that when you broke a piece of spaghetti 557 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:13,200 it often broke into three pieces, instead of two? 558 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,960 You should try it, it really does. 559 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:22,960 So, of course, he came up with a theory of it immediately, 560 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:25,640 but instead of being satisfied with it 561 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,040 he constructed an experiment to see if the theory was true, 562 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,600 which involved slowly moving the spaghetti off the end of the table 563 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:34,640 and breaking it at different lengths. 564 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,400 And then, that theory was wrong and he came up with another theory 565 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:42,360 and then each theory would lead to another experiment. 566 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,320 By the time the evening was over, we had broken spaghetti 567 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,520 all over the place and we STILL didn't know why 568 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:50,720 spaghetti broke in three places. 569 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:58,760 This playful curiosity coupled with the anti-authoritarian values, 570 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,960 instilled by his father, frequently led Feynman down a mischievous path. 571 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,240 He's just so funny and irreverent. 572 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,960 You have to kind of look at that picture a few minutes and think... 573 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:19,000 "Oh my gosh, he's really, you know! 574 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,680 "Making nice little horns!" 575 00:34:23,720 --> 00:34:27,560 Important people. You know. "Oh yes, I think now would be a great time." 576 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,040 He didn't need the external validation 577 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,520 of having everybody respecting him all the time, 578 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:39,120 because he respected himself, he knew he was an extraordinary person. 579 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,560 And if he came off as kind of a doofus 580 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,920 to some guy that he doesn't know, it's OK. 581 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:49,400 Because he knows inside that he's a man of substance. 582 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,800 In 1984, Feynman collaborated with his friend, Ralph Leighton 583 00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,840 on a humorous book of anecdotes from his life. 584 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:06,320 'I opened the safes which contained all the secrets to the atomic bomb.' 585 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,920 It was kind of accidental how the books caught on. 586 00:35:11,920 --> 00:35:16,520 The publisher released the first one, 587 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,280 Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman, in January of 1985. 588 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:26,440 And the edition was like 2,000 copies or some low number. 589 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:28,560 And in January. 590 00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:35,360 I was thinking, January, the whole holiday season is over, 591 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:38,600 who's going to buy a book in January? 592 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:42,720 But people did buy it. 593 00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:47,200 And Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman quickly became a best seller. 594 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,080 It remains to this day, 595 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:53,320 one of the biggest-selling science books of all time. 596 00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:59,360 I do remember coming down one evening and seeing him 597 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,600 just, you know, giggling 598 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:05,240 and clearly enjoying the book that he was reading. 599 00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:08,840 And I sort of looked, you know, "What are you reading?" 600 00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:12,600 And he held up the book so I could see that it was his own, 601 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:16,640 Surely You're Joking. And he said, "Ah, such a character." 602 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:23,320 Freely admitting that, yes, he was laughing at his own history. 603 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,600 The book vividly captured Feynman's world view, 604 00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:31,120 the sense of curiosity and fun guiding him through life. 605 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,840 It was an approach he communicated to an even bigger audience through 606 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,800 a series of BBC documentaries, broadcast around the world. 607 00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:49,160 I have a friend who's an artist and he's sometimes taken a view, 608 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:51,760 which I don't agree with very well. 609 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:56,600 You hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is." And I'll agree. 610 00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:59,720 And he says, I, as an artist, can see how beautiful this is, 611 00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:01,320 but you, as a scientist, 612 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,480 take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing. 613 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,960 And I think that he's kind of nutty. 614 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:10,880 First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people 615 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:12,480 and to me too. 616 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,000 I believe, although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically 617 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,120 as he is, that I can appreciate the beauty of the flower. 618 00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:23,840 At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. 619 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:27,320 I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, 620 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:28,960 which also have a beauty. 621 00:37:28,960 --> 00:37:32,640 I mean, it's not just beauty at this dimension of one centimetre, 622 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,280 there's also beauty at a smaller dimensions, the inner structure. 623 00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:38,240 Also the processes. 624 00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:43,480 The fact that the colours and the flower are evolved in order to 625 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:47,200 attract insects to pollinate it is interesting. 626 00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,240 It means that insects can see the colour. 627 00:37:50,240 --> 00:37:51,680 It adds a question, 628 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,160 does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? 629 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,360 Why is it aesthetic? 630 00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:03,160 All kinds of interesting questions, which a science knowledge only adds 631 00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:07,400 to the excitement and mystery and the aura of a flower. 632 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:10,640 It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts. 633 00:38:10,640 --> 00:38:13,320 Most people only have a few stories. 634 00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,480 You and I might have three or four stories to tell. 635 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:20,560 Some people have ten, and Feynman had hundreds. 636 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:24,640 And Feynman was so mesmerizing. 637 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:27,640 I think Chris Sykes in his documentaries, 638 00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:30,000 captured Feynman how he was. 639 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:33,160 He takes enormous pleasure in finding out about things 640 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,800 and exploring life and everything it has to offer. 641 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,840 More than that, he takes tremendous pleasure in telling you about it. 642 00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,040 I think he was pleased with how it worked out, 643 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,680 that he was able to communicate with so many people, 644 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,400 sort of his view of the world and of nature and so on. 645 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:53,240 When I was a student at Caltech, I went up to Feynman's door 646 00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:56,880 and knocked on it and a door opened and I explained 647 00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,440 that my mother had watched his programme about him, 648 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,600 thought he was interesting, she had no science background, 649 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:04,880 and I said, "Do you think you could write to her 650 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:08,080 "because maybe I'll have a better chance of teaching her physics?" 651 00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:11,360 And Feynman did write to her. He wrote a letter in which he said, 652 00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:16,080 "Dear Mrs Chown. Ignore your son's attempts to teach you physics. 653 00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,880 "Physics is not the most important thing. Love is." 654 00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:22,800 So it kind of backfired. 655 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,320 I got the greatest living physicist at the time 656 00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,960 telling my mother that physics isn't important. 657 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:29,880 That love was the important thing. 658 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:45,040 Through his films and books, Feynman had touched the lives of millions. 659 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,560 Yet there was something all this success 660 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:50,520 and recognition couldn't alter. 661 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,240 I did a lot of running and Feynman thought, 662 00:39:56,240 --> 00:40:00,520 gee, that's a healthy thing to do, so he started running too. 663 00:40:00,520 --> 00:40:05,160 And when you start running regularly, you lose weight. 664 00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,880 And Feynman suddenly noticed that one side kind of bulged out. 665 00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,680 They discovered a big mass in his abdomen. 666 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,040 He came home and reported, 667 00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,760 "It's the size of a football. It's consumed one whole kidney." 668 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,000 And he says, "Well, I went to the medical library 669 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:22,920 "and I looked things up and I figure 670 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,640 "it's about a 30% chance it'll kill me." 671 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:30,120 So, you know, not the kind of thing you want to hear from your father. 672 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,000 But exactly the kind of thing he would say. 673 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:36,160 And... 674 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,880 He sort of quit working at that point, because, you know, 675 00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,520 surgery and chemotherapy and so on, it's a full time job. 676 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,840 One day his secretary Helen Tuck called me up 677 00:40:47,840 --> 00:40:50,880 to tell me that Dick had cancer and that he was going to the hospital 678 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:52,720 for an operation the following Friday. 679 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:55,160 It was a very dangerous operation 680 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,880 and it was not assured that he would survive it. 681 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:01,800 I promised not to tell anyone and he didn't know that I knew. 682 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:06,080 And I told him that somebody had found an apparent error 683 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:09,320 in a calculation that we had done and published together. 684 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:12,320 And so on Monday morning we met in my office 685 00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:17,440 and he sat down and started working, and he was consumed by it. 686 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:21,320 All his energy and attention was devoted to solving this problem. 687 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,440 And we worked on it all day long. 688 00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,800 And finally at six o'clock in the evening, 689 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,960 we decided the problem was intractable, it couldn't be solved, 690 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,280 we couldn't figure out what the answer was. 691 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,320 And we gave up and went home. 692 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:37,320 Two hours later, he called me at home to say he'd solved the problem. 693 00:41:37,320 --> 00:41:40,800 He hadn't been able to give up, and stop working on it 694 00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:42,520 and finally he'd found the solution. 695 00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:45,720 He dictated the solution to me over the phone, told me what it was, 696 00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:48,320 and he was exhilarated, absolutely walking on air. 697 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,000 Feynman would recover from this first operation for cancer. 698 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,000 But the disease would never completely go away, 699 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,480 and he would always be living under its shadow. 700 00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:14,120 'We have main engine start. Four, three, two, one. And lift off. 701 00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:17,360 'Lift off of the 25th space shuttle mission 702 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,440 'and it has cleared the tower.' 703 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:23,000 'Challenger go with roll programme.' 704 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,040 'Roger. Roll, Challenger. 705 00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:27,640 'Good roll, programme.' 706 00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:33,680 In January 1986, NASA launched its 25th space shuttle mission. 707 00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:37,960 It symbolized a new era of space flight by adding a school teacher 708 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:40,880 called Christa McAuliffe to the crew. 709 00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:44,000 '65 final. Thank you.' 710 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:47,600 'Challenger. Go with throttle up.' 711 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:54,960 I was in social studies and I think we were taking a test and 712 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,440 the teacher came in and said, "We've had a horrible accident." 713 00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:08,160 'Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. 714 00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:09,680 'We have no down link.' 715 00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:14,000 And then coming home, and my parents had already seen it, 716 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,040 which was unusual because they didn't really watch TV. 717 00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:20,040 'Watch your data carefully.' 718 00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:22,800 'Take hard copies of all of your displays. 719 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:25,800 'Make sure you protect any data source you have.' 720 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:30,120 The loss of their space shuttle and its crew of seven, live on TV, 721 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:34,240 shocked America. The country was thrown into mourning. 722 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,840 Our nation's loss is first a profound personal loss 723 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:42,800 to the family and the friends and the loved ones 724 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,360 of our shuttle astronauts. 725 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:49,320 But there was one question everyone wanted an answer to - 726 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,200 what had gone wrong? 727 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:56,680 A Presidential Commission was hastily put together to find out, 728 00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,160 but it was comprised largely of space industry insiders 729 00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:02,760 with close ties to NASA. 730 00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:08,720 Someone independent with unimpeachable scientific credentials was needed. 731 00:44:08,720 --> 00:44:12,760 I have a policy practically of never going near Washington. 732 00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,200 And I called up various friends of mine 733 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,480 who were connected to the space programme one way or the other 734 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,920 and tried to ask them if they didn't see 735 00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:24,280 whether I should go or somebody else could do it just as well. 736 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:26,360 His friends were, "Dick, you got to go 737 00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:29,840 "cos you're the only guy who can cut through the bullshit!" 738 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,040 He asked me what I thought he should do 739 00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:35,280 so I just asked him, "Do you think it's an important problem?" 740 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:36,720 And he said, yes he did. 741 00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:38,880 I said, "Do you think you can make a difference?" 742 00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:41,840 And he said, after a while, he said, "Well, yeah, probably can." 743 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:43,320 I didn't say another word. 744 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:46,600 And after a few minutes hesitation he said, "To hell with you, Hibbs," 745 00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:47,880 and hung up. 746 00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,720 Feynman broke his policy and within days of the accident 747 00:44:54,720 --> 00:44:57,400 he had joined the inquiry in Washington. 748 00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:02,920 The investigation was led by William Rogers, 749 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:06,200 an ex-Secretary of State and the ultimate Washington insider. 750 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:10,680 His formal, bureaucratic approach was 751 00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:14,080 the polar opposite of the freewheeling maverick professor. 752 00:45:15,720 --> 00:45:18,640 Mr Rogers, he knew nothing about it. 753 00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:22,840 I had been on accident boards before and I took the opportunity. 754 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,400 I said "Hey, I just did one of these investigations, 755 00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,440 "would you like to see it?" 756 00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:29,040 And I think reluctantly Rogers said 757 00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:30,640 "Yeah, OK, you can show it to us, 758 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:32,760 "but we're not going to do it that way." 759 00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,800 And so I went through this very logical step-by-step process 760 00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:39,480 of how you investigate a space accident and Rogers said, 761 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:42,120 "No, we don't have the technical capability to do that." 762 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:44,080 And that's when Feynman butted in. 763 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,800 He said, "No, I like that. I think that's a smart way to go." 764 00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,280 For Feynman and the chairman, 765 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:53,280 it was the beginning of a poor relationship, 766 00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,160 but for the professor and the Air Force General, 767 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,200 it was the start of a close friendship. 768 00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:01,840 And he just was the smartest guy in the world. 769 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:06,280 And he had a reputation for integrity, you know, 770 00:46:06,280 --> 00:46:09,160 he was the most honest guy in the world. 771 00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:15,120 He didn't accept something unless he really could prove it. 772 00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,160 The two men began touring the US, 773 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,080 visiting NASA sites where the shuttle was made, 774 00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:27,000 questioning the engineers and managers. 775 00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:31,480 In the process of speaking to the engineers, he realised, 776 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,360 "Wow, some of them won't talk to me right now cos 777 00:46:34,360 --> 00:46:37,000 "the managers are in the room," you know? 778 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,080 It wasn't simply a technical puzzle, 779 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:44,000 there was a human puzzle going on too. 780 00:46:44,000 --> 00:46:46,720 Writing home to Michelle and Gweneth, 781 00:46:46,720 --> 00:46:50,560 Feynman expressed his frustration and excitement 782 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:52,280 at his hunt for the truth. 783 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:56,040 'Dearest Gweneth and Michelle. 784 00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,280 'This is the first time I have had time to write to you. 785 00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:03,200 'I already smell certain rats that I will not forget because I just 786 00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:07,440 'love the smell of rats, for it is the spore of exciting adventure.' 787 00:47:10,440 --> 00:47:14,760 But there was a problem, NASA managers didn't want to reveal 788 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:17,560 the full extent of their knowledge. 789 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:22,880 The result was a smokescreen. 790 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,360 NASA wanted to control everything that they gave 791 00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,360 to the Commission and actually withheld things. 792 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:33,800 They didn't lie, 793 00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:37,280 but they certainly didn't go around blabbing the truth either. 794 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:41,240 What Feynman didn't know was that 795 00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:44,800 General Kutyna had a secret source inside NASA. 796 00:47:44,800 --> 00:47:48,680 Sally Ride was America's first woman in space 797 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:51,480 and another Commission member. 798 00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:55,400 She privately told the general that NASA had long had doubts 799 00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,040 about how the rubber O-rings, 800 00:47:57,040 --> 00:48:00,080 the seals in the shuttle's solid rocket boosters, 801 00:48:00,080 --> 00:48:02,000 worked in the cold. 802 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:06,120 The temperature on the morning of the launch had been below freezing. 803 00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:09,400 The general needed to get this information to Feynman 804 00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:11,600 without compromising his source. 805 00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:18,320 The chance came after supper one evening at Kutyna's house. 806 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,080 The general restored classic cars. 807 00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,040 I took him out in the garage to show him the car 808 00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:26,880 and Feynman really isn't interested in cars. 809 00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:30,920 So we walked around the car and I showed him the interior 810 00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,360 and I showed him where the engine was. 811 00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:35,440 And Feynman looked at my work bench 812 00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:38,160 and he sees a couple of carburettors out there. 813 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:40,920 And he says, "Kutyna, what are those carburettors?" 814 00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:44,960 And I said, "Oh, they're from the Opal and I keep one put together 815 00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:47,400 "and then one I take apart and clean." 816 00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:49,720 And then the thought came to me. 817 00:48:49,720 --> 00:48:54,880 I needed to get the idea of cold and O-rings and leakage across. 818 00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:59,360 I said, "You know, Professor, these doggone carburettors have O-rings 819 00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:01,080 "and they leak when they're cold." 820 00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:07,920 Feynman had his answer and he also had an inspired idea 821 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:11,560 about how to convey it to the world's press. 822 00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,360 From that and the various things that you told me 823 00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:22,600 about the need for resilience and the lack of resilience... 824 00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:25,360 When the Commission next met, he began questioning 825 00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:28,840 senior engineers about the effect of cold on the O-rings 826 00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,320 on the morning of the launch. 827 00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:33,440 Their replies were evasive, 828 00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,720 denying that temperature could have had an effect. 829 00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:43,640 Before the event, from information that was available 830 00:49:43,640 --> 00:49:45,880 and the understanding that was available, 831 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:48,760 was it fully appreciated everywhere that this seal 832 00:49:48,760 --> 00:49:53,400 would become unsatisfactory at some temperature? 833 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:58,280 And was there some sort of a suggestion of a temperature at which 834 00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,120 the SR...the SRB I guess you call it... 835 00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,000 Yes, that's right. ..Shouldn't be run? 836 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,400 It was the judgment that under the conditions that we would see 837 00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,680 on launch day, given the configuration that we ran, 838 00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:13,160 that the seal would function at that temperature. 839 00:50:13,160 --> 00:50:14,920 That was the final judgment. 840 00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,360 It was Feynman's chance. 841 00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:20,920 He decided to use the power of a classic science demonstration. 842 00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:25,920 During the hearings, they had that actual O-ring joint 843 00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:27,920 and were passing it up the rows. 844 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:29,640 It goes to Feynman. 845 00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:34,840 I'm sitting to his left and I hand it to him and he puts it down. 846 00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:39,920 And then he goes into his pocket and pulls out the pliers and the 847 00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:44,160 hose clamp and the screwdriver, and takes the joint apart. 848 00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:48,040 Pulls out the piece of rubber O-ring, puts the clamp on it, 849 00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:49,840 then I know what he's going to do. 850 00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:54,120 He sees the ice water and he swears it was just kind of an accident. 851 00:50:54,120 --> 00:50:58,000 He got this idea, "Wait a minute, I know I know how 852 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:02,040 "I can get data on how rubber is when it's cold." 853 00:51:02,040 --> 00:51:07,240 He clamped a piece of rubber and put it in a beaker full of ice water. 854 00:51:07,240 --> 00:51:12,840 I took this stuff that I got out of your seal and I put it in ice water. 855 00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:16,680 And I discovered that when you put some pressure on it for a while 856 00:51:16,680 --> 00:51:20,320 and then undo it, it maintains, it doesn't stretch back, 857 00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:22,760 it stays the same dimension. 858 00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,280 In other words, for a few seconds at least, 859 00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,480 and more seconds than that, there's no resilience in this 860 00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:33,160 particular material when it's at a temperature of 32 degrees. 861 00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:37,320 I believe that has some significance for our problem. 862 00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:46,360 The O-rings, which were supposed to create a seal 863 00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:50,600 around the solid boosters, had got so cold they'd lost their ability 864 00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:55,440 to flex and to fill the gap between the boosters. 865 00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:01,760 And that's why the fuel had leaked and the shuttle had exploded. 866 00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:04,520 Feynman had nailed, once and for all, 867 00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:06,960 that the cold could have been the cause 868 00:52:06,960 --> 00:52:10,560 of the shuttle's failure just 73 seconds after launch. 869 00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:14,360 It really was a turning point in the investigation. 870 00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:15,760 It couldn't be ignored. 871 00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:22,080 In the summer of 1986, the Commission's report was submitted. 872 00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:25,720 In its appendix, Feynman added a stark reminder 873 00:52:25,720 --> 00:52:28,160 about the limits of science. 874 00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:30,440 His last recommendation I think 875 00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:32,840 really summed it up in one simple paragraph. 876 00:52:34,720 --> 00:52:36,920 "For a successful technology, 877 00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:41,800 "reality must take precedence over public relations, 878 00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:43,760 "for nature cannot be fooled." 879 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:54,680 I remember, it was very hard on him. 880 00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,840 He was just exhausted. He came over, he says, 881 00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:03,920 "I came over to tell you that my cancer's come back again. 882 00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:08,120 "Doesn't look too good." 883 00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:11,280 So I don't know what we talked about and I don't know how 884 00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:13,800 I got off on the subject. 885 00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:18,800 I said, "I've been thinking about an invariant in turbulent flow." 886 00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:20,840 He said, "What do you mean?" 887 00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:24,040 I explained a little bit what it was all about. 888 00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:25,840 The invariant, you know. 889 00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,920 I said, "Well under these, such and such conditions." 890 00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:31,960 And he says, "Let's see." 891 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:34,200 So I had a notebook there. 892 00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:39,280 He took the notebook and he started, he wrote it all down step by step. 893 00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:43,360 I think it took 13 steps to get to that. 894 00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:47,400 He says, "Yes, that's true, it is an invariant." 895 00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:53,280 Then he says, "You got me thinking about physics again. 896 00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,120 "I can go home now." 897 00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:02,840 Feynman went into hospital for the last time in February 1988. 898 00:54:02,840 --> 00:54:05,880 His kidneys were failing and he decided 899 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,640 he didn't want to go through with dialysis to prolong his suffering. 900 00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:15,840 I still sort of thought, "No, this isn't the way it is." 901 00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:19,880 But he was able to handle a lot of physical difficulties 902 00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:22,280 as long as his mind was sharp. 903 00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:27,440 When a person is dying, their hands move a little. 904 00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:33,520 And the nurse who was there says that he's not 905 00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:37,760 trying to communicate, that's just natural. 906 00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:45,760 And he raised his hands like this. 907 00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:53,360 And he went like this, which, if you know it, is the symbol that 908 00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:57,320 a magician gives when he's going to do a trick. OK? 909 00:54:57,320 --> 00:54:58,880 And he went... 910 00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:08,680 He was communicating, again, of his observations of the world. 911 00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:11,720 The doctors were wrong, he could hear. 912 00:55:11,720 --> 00:55:14,920 He could move if he tried hard enough. 913 00:55:14,920 --> 00:55:19,600 And understand... He could hear and understand what was being said. 914 00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:21,400 And those were his last words. 915 00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:28,560 Richard Feynman died on the 15th February 1988 916 00:55:28,560 --> 00:55:32,320 in hospital in Los Angeles at the age of just 69. 917 00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:39,120 When I took my last walk with Richard Feynman, he was telling me 918 00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:44,200 a bunch of funny stories, but I realised the message behind 919 00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:49,520 the stories was that he was about to die of cancer and I got very sad. 920 00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:55,280 And he noticed it and he asked me, "What's wrong?" 921 00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:59,600 And I said, "I'm sad because I'm realising that you're about to die." 922 00:56:01,240 --> 00:56:05,320 And he said, "Yeah, that bugs me sometimes too. 923 00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:12,040 "But not as much as you'd think," he said, "because you realise 924 00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:17,480 "that at some point in your life, you've told a lot of stories 925 00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:21,360 "and those stories are going to stay around even after you're gone." 926 00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:26,480 Today, over 25 years since his death, 927 00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:30,920 Feynman's prophecy has more truth than he could ever have imagined. 928 00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:34,360 Through an invention that hadn't been created when he died, 929 00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:36,560 his stories do live on. 930 00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:41,400 Because through their reimagining on the World Wide Web, 931 00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:45,840 a new generation is discovering the delights of time with Feynman. 932 00:56:49,880 --> 00:56:54,160 It's fantastic to just be able to Google Feynman, Richard Feynman, 933 00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:59,360 you know, any kind of variation and there it is. 934 00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:04,200 You have a lot of stuff out there. 935 00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:08,880 I see my father referenced in popular culture a lot more now 936 00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:10,320 than when he was alive. 937 00:57:15,240 --> 00:57:18,960 I have a friend who's an artist and he's sometimes taken a view, 938 00:57:18,960 --> 00:57:21,440 which I don't agree with very well. 939 00:57:21,440 --> 00:57:25,640 You hold up a flower and say, "Look how beautiful it is." And I'll agree. 940 00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:28,560 And he says, I, as an artist, can see how beautiful this is, 941 00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:33,040 but you, as a scientist, take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing 942 00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:35,120 and I think that he's kind of nutty. 943 00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,880 You wonder what Feynman would have made of the internet. 944 00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:43,880 And I think he would really, really like the idea 945 00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:50,280 that he's spread all over the world in clips, short and long, 946 00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:54,200 on the internet, for maybe all time. I think he'd like that. 947 00:57:54,200 --> 00:57:56,640 You know, you just touch it like this... 948 00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:57,960 FEYNMAN'S VOICE 949 00:57:57,960 --> 00:58:00,880 ..and you bring his voice right back, you know. 950 00:58:00,880 --> 00:58:03,920 '"The whole universe is in a glass of wine." 951 00:58:03,920 --> 00:58:07,800 'I don't think we'll ever know in what sense he meant that. 952 00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:09,400 LAUGHTER 953 00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:12,240 'For the poets don't like to be understood.' 954 00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:16,960 I know what I'll remember him for. 955 00:58:16,960 --> 00:58:21,840 For being a good brother and a good person. 956 00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:27,760 He wasn't just the scientist, he wasn't just the artist, 957 00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:29,520 he wasn't just the educator. 958 00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:32,200 He was physics with a human face, you know. 959 00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:35,040 He showed that in order to be a top-ranked physicist 960 00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:36,720 you can still be a human being. 961 00:58:36,720 --> 00:58:39,640 I think that's a very important legacy to people 962 00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:41,200 who want to do science. 963 00:58:41,200 --> 00:58:43,480 It's a human endeavour and he showed that. 964 00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:52,880 Has Richard Feynman inspired you to follow your own path in life? 965 00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:57,200 Join The Open University to explore your options and find out more 966 00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,600 about how he revolutionised the face of physics. 967 00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:02,800 Go to: 968 00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:07,480 And follow the links to The Open University. 969 00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:25,360 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd