Science Idols: Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1965 and is still an inspiration to several generations of physicists today. He transmitted a passion for physics like no one else and earned his place in the Olympus of the gods of science.

Feynman loved to tell stories and anecdotes, which he usually adorned as told by the people who have witnessed them. What differentiated him from the rest of physicists and what made him special was that his relationship with physics was emotional and he was mainly interested in understanding the very nature of a concept.

Feynman didn't like being honored very much, he didn't understand how some people in Sweden decided if a work was good enough to receive the Nobel Prize. He believed that the real prize was the ability to unravel a problem and the pleasure of discovering and learning something new, as well as demonstrating that the work done was of interest to people and that other people could use those discoveries to advance science.

Feynman thought that if you had to rely on arguments that you had been taught it was that you didn't understand the concept well. If you really understand something you have to be able to reconstruct it from simple concepts.

Once a physicist asked him to explain an issue that was fundamental in Particle Physics. The question sought to explain the relationship between the magnetic field of a particle and how it behaved when coupled with a similar particle.

Feynman set out to prepare a lesson for first-year students and a few days later he came back admitting that he was unable to reduce the theorem to a beginner level. This made him think that the theorem wasn't really understood because it couldn't be explained in a simpler way.