http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005 by the authors Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:59:41 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/13/072459.php#comment-46673 Feynman went to the same High School I attended -- Far Rockaway -- about two, three years ahead of me, and I had the same physics teacher he had. Name was Bader, a very understanding guy even when I screwed things up. Perhaps some of his influence rubbed off on me. Feynman's sister Joan was in the same class as me. She also became a physicist but I've no idea where she is now. What's this got to do with me or nanotechnology? Just about nothing. I get most of my science genes from my father, who was a "rocket scientist" in the 1940s. They called them plain engineers then. But perhaps I got my lifelong interest in far-out engineering from my dad. I went on to write comedy scripts and a blog. 46673@blogcritics.org Sun, 22 Feb 2004 21:59:41 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/13/072459.php#comment-44574 I didn't go to Cal Tech, and I'm not a physicist, but my husband did his graduate work in physics at Cornell, where Feynman also once taught. He never had any close contact with him, but he attended some of Feynman's lectures which he says were the best physics lectures he's ever heard. They always provided a fresh angle and new way of thinking about things. The problem was that you had to already have a good grasp of the subject to get anything from Feynman's lectures. The consensus among students who were new to physics (i.e. "physics-for-poets" students) was that it was hard to learn anything from him for the first time. Which backs up Feynman's own observation about his teaching. 44574@blogcritics.org Sat, 14 Feb 2004 15:48:51 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/02/13/072459.php#comment-44208 Thanks for introducing us to Feynman (those of us who were not acquainted with him or his work). Fascinating stuff. I will have to read up on him and his work. 44208@blogcritics.org Fri, 13 Feb 2004 09:23:07 EST