On a recent episode of The Experimenters by Blank on Blank (previously), quantum physicist, safe-cracker, joint Nobel Prize winner, and artist Richard Feynman opens up about his relationship with his father and how that relationship taught him how to look at the world in a 1966 interview with fellow scientist Charles Weiner that has since been animated by Quoted Studios.
See I can remember my father talking, talking, and talking. When you go into the museum, for example, there are great rocks which have long cuts, grooves in them, from glacier. I remember, the first time going there, when he stopped there and explained to me about the ice moving and grinding. I can hear the voice, practically. Then he would tell me, “How do you think anybody knows that there were glaciers in the past?” He’d point out, “Look at that. These rocks are found in New York. And so there must have been ice in New York.” He understood. A thing that was very important about my father was not the facts but the process. How we find out. What is the consequence of finding such a rock. But that’s the kind of guy he was. I don’t think he ever successfully went to college. However, he did teach himself a great deal. He read a lot. He liked the rational mind, and liked those things which could be understood by thinking. So it’s not hard to understand I got interested in science.
In 2013, Hank Green of SciShow explained the incredible career of Richard Feyman, calling him “one of the great explainers.”
images via Blank on Blank
