Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #266996 in Books
• Published on: 1993-01-11
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and a winner of the Nobel Prize, died in February 1988. This is his last anecdotal autobiography in which he tells the story of the two people who most influenced his early years - his father, who taught him to think, and his first wife Arlene who taught him to love, even as she lay dying at an Albuquerque hospital while Feynman worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. There are also lighter moments which tell of his travels in Geneva, Trinidad, Greece and Japan. In the second part, Feynman gives a behind-the-scenes account of the investigation that followed the space shuttle "Challenger"'s explosion in January 1986, showing the inner workings of the Rogers Commission, the official enquiry into the causes of the disaster, the confusion and misjudgement which plagued NASA and the moment when the cause of the "Challenger" disaster was revealed.

Customer Reviews

More facinating tidbits from Feynman
The anecdotes from Feynman are, as usual, witty and amusing. However, the second half of the book is taken with his involvement in the Challenger enquiry, and it is gripping stuff.

I highly recommend it, to scientists and laymen alike.

Not as good as "Surelly you are joking...' but still good
The story of investigation of Challenger gives a good understanding of how does Washington work. All other events mentioned in the book look like piecies which did not fit into the first book "Surelly you are joking Mr Fenman", so the book lacks a "master story". However it does not matter. It is great anyway. WORTH READING.