Actually, string theorist John Schwarz now occupies Richard Feynman’s old office at Caltech.
But…
I got Feynman’s desk.
Caltech has a room devoted to Feynman memorabilia, and they really want this desk. (Feynman-worship is quite the industry here; the bookstore has a section labeled “Feynman” in the same way an ordinary bookstore would have sections labeled “Physics” or “Women’s Studies.”) But Helen Tuck, who was Feynman’s secretary and still occasionally visits, insists that the desk be used by a working physicist. My impression is that the desk is given to the most senior person in the theory group who is not sufficiently senior to get all brand-new fancy furniture; at the moment, that person is I. (In the background, one can discern the winner of the ultimate showdown.)
I looked for little diagrams carved into the wood, but haven’t found any yet.
Comments
65 responses to “Who Got Feynman’s Office?”
nc, Kaku? In the New Scientist? Now there is a reliable source
if ever there was one. My facts are quite straight.
“Y’know, if my wife had just died, and I thought myself even a tiny bit responsible for a tool which I felt would destroy human civilization…”
Come now. Even *Feynman* never made such claims about his tool.
I wanna know who got Feynman’s bongos, or are those in the cargo cult museum?
Quasar9:
Maybe the “inkblot” is like Piglet describing the Heffalump,. in Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne?
It depends on what you want to see? 🙂
re:#39
feynman was a revolution of one, a real alternative.
there really have been few in science like this.
as with all information (re: the feynman lectures, landau, the manual that tells you how best to cook chicken in a microwave), aren’t we looking to digest all perspectives to perhaps create new innovative ideas and direction?
and not follow in blind faith.
The bongos- maybe with his children: Carl or Michelle or with his friend Ralph Leighton ?
Sean, how about digging up a photo of feynman sitting at his desk for verification?..not doubting you claim, but I m sure “youre not joking” about Mr Feynman’s desk Mr Carrol! 😉
Really it would be cool?..although your mile wide grin says a lot 🙂
That’s really awesome.
Just sell the desk on ebay and give the money to the poor and use some of it to buy a desk of your own. I’m sure there are lots of Feynman fanatics (as these comments have shown) who are willing to pay big bucks for the desk. That’ll allow you to focus more on physics and you won’t ever be distracted with the thought, “Wow. I’m doing physics on the same desk that Feynman used.” and it’s a good deed too.
Jim Harrison on Sep 26th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I’m interested in what physicists think of Feynman’s lectures. My impression is that the books never worked very well as textbooks, in part because, despite their rather modest math level, they attempted to convey the meaning of physical ideas, i.e. they were too ambitious.
This is true. The Feynman lecture books would have worked well as texts for instruction in advanced physics, but not for introductory instruction. Start with Halliday & Resnick (which I did in the late 1960s) and then continue with the Feynman books (which I also did) for advanced students.
That said, it should be appreciated that the most interesting PBS Nova program ever broadcast was the one with Feynman. They edited out all of the questions from the interviewer and just had his responses. What was interesting is that Feynman’s responses made physics seem so easy. Which, quite frankly, it is–it is the physicists and (especially) the mathematicians that make physics seem so difficult.
The Feynman Lectures were the text for freshman physics at CalTech. One of the authors Robert Leighton, who wrote the companion problem book probably has not recieved enough credit for his contribution.
I’ve already told the story before about the night he tried to steal my date at an undergrad mixer.
Elliot
“The Feynman Lectures were the text for freshman physics at CalTech. ”
Um, it’s “Caltech.” Don’t ask why. Even though it’s an abstraction of “California Institute of Technology,” most Techers get annoyed if you spell it “CalTech” or “Cal Tech” or “ITT Tech” or “Cal Poly.”
Anyway, to Sean, I didn’t know you were there now! Have fun; I have fond memories of the place and I liked that everyone there LIKES SCIENCE. Not like MIT, where people do it for the glory and stardom. Or maybe this is just a difference in an undergrad versus grad student lens.
Sean,
Thanks for the info! I was a SURF student at Caltech in summer 2005, and I remember walking around campus wondering in which office Feynman had worked. At first I thought his office was in the Norman Bridge Lab, they I found it was at Lauritsen, but I didn’t know the exact office until now. So, thanks for answering a question that was left unanswered for way too long! 🙂
And of course, have fun working at Feynman’s desk!
[…] Back in summer 2005, when I was a visiting student at Caltech, I remember walking around campus while wondering in which building and office Feynman had worked during his 35+ years at Caltech. At first I thought his office was in the Norman Bridge Laboratory (where some friends of mine were working), but only later did I find out that Feynman’s office was at the Lauritsen building. Still, the mystery persisted: who got Feynman’s office? A few days ago I knew the answer! Sean Carroll wrote about it: who got Feynman’s office? According to Sean, Feynman’s office is now occupied by string theorist John Schwarz. A mystery has been solved! […]
[…] Maybe it’s a good thing your were on a plane when I put this up. It’s been too long since then young Dr. Sean [Now Professor Sean and inheritor of Feyman’s desk]Â taught me how to calculate spin connections. Google(assumptions of GR) -> inconclusive {so far}, but I’m thinking EP is already in ST. Not that that’s a bad thing. The big problem with GR is that you can’t quantize it. If take the assumptions of GR except allow dimension to float then fix it due to quantum mechanics. It IS conservative relative to other approaches, but often in science, that’s a good thing.* […]