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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“A very unusual memoir of a very unusual author’s revealing encounters with a very human legend.” —The Dallas Morning News
“This is a sweetly entertaining book about the weird, but engaging, world of physics. . . . Young scientists will find solace and perhaps inspiration here.” —American Scientist
“Mlodinow’s tribute to the man is set against an amusing, nicely drawn backdrop of campus life, and fleshed out with a very readable account of string theory, which developed into the most promising breakthrough of the century in theoretical physics.” —The Independent (London)
“Mlodinow’s accessible style manages to convey Feynman’s cantankerous appeal as well as some of the weirdness of theoretical physics without overtaxing lay readers, while his deft, funny, novelistic portraits of its practitioners . . . bring this seemingly gray sub-culture to vivid life.” —Publishers Weekly
“An exhilarating book . . . one that reflects the radiance of its subject and so warms as it instructs.” —David Berlinski, author of One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics
“Mlodinow thinks in equations but explains in anecdote, simile, and occasional bursts of neon. . . . The results are mind-bending.” —Fortune
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad book, but quite misleading,
By A Customer
This review is from: Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life (Hardcover)
This is a reasonable book. It is a good read, and it is entertaining, especially to those interested in the daily workings of a major physics departments. The advice Mlodinow received from Feynman on life and work is very useful to everyone who reads it.However the book is also quite misleading. First, the title and back cover suggest strongly that this is a book about Feynman. It isn't. It is about a junior faculty member who on occasion would talk to Feynman. Second, the book itself goes into great detail describing the people at Caltech, but then has a disclaimer that except for the exact quotes from Feynman, most of the characters and stories are not accurate. Several people have been combined to produce characters, others sound fictional. The third criticism is that Mlodinow hypes himself too much. Throughout the book he talks about his great research into infinit dimensions and quantum optics. He talks about being well known for his graduate thesis, and for correcting mistakes in well known theories. However amongst other physicists who were active at the time, almost no one has actually heard of him. And looking through citations in research papers from the era reveal very few references to his work. It is worth reading, but as a biography of Mlodinow, not as an accurate historical portrayal of Feynman, Gell-Mann, or Caltech.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A lesson for Stephen Hawkins or somewhere over the rainbow,
This review is from: Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life (Hardcover)
Mlodinow has written a great book about the process of science and the people involved. What becomes clear is that scientists should stick with what they know and the sheer genius of Fenyman is his avoidance of the philosophical and metaphysical. This where Feynman and Hawkins diverge. With Fenyman you get science, with Hawkings you get philosophical speculation with the genius of Fenyman shining through: "Scientists talking about non-scientific matters are just as stupid as anyone else". Mlodinow in Fenyman's Rainbow presents for us all what science really is versus Hawking's nonsense metaphysical musings. However, with Mlodinow's collaboration, Hawkings makes millions via this deception which goes to show, if you want a pot of gold, Fenyman's Rainbow isn't exactly where it's at.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Includes Gems of Feynman's Words in His Last Years,
By
This review is from: Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life (Paperback)
In the winter of 1981, Mlodinow became a post-doctoral fellow at Caltech, where two Nobel Prize winners, Richard Feynman and Murray Gell-Mann, had offices down the hall. The author wanted someone to help him emerge from his creative drought, and figured that it would be his idol Feynman. One day he knocked on the door to Feynman's office, and was welcome ... This is the story of the author's young days as well as Feynman, Gell-Mann and the world of the physical theory named string theory in its beginning.In an early chapter we learn that Feynman used to say there were two kinds of physicists, the Babylonians and the Greeks. The former focused on the phenomena, and the latter, on the underlying order. Gell-Mann was a Greek, and Feynman considered himself a Babylonian. Echoing this, the author understandably writes in a later chapter, "Feynman scorned string theory, Murray championed it. That was Feynman and Murray - attracted by each other's genius, repelled by each other's philosophy." I have found the following gems of Feynman's words told to the author: "An important part of the creative process is play." "The scientist's imagination always is different from a writer's in that it is checked." "She (Arlene, Feynman's wife in his first marriage) taught me that one has to be irrational sometimes." You might find some more you like in this book. In the last chapter the author thinks of Feynman in this way, "If there is one thing he taught me, it is the importance of being truly committed to whatever it is we are striving for." This small and readable book would a good addition to the bookshelf of the fans of the People's Physicist Feynman. It is to be noted that "Some Time with Feynman" is not a different book by the same author but the European title of this book.
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