Feynman's Lectures

Richard Feynman believed that teaching was essential to the researcher. He claimed that teaching helped remind him of problems in his field that he had forgotten about and that students often asked questions that brought insight to his research. He frequently gave special lectures outside of his regular teaching duties and many of those lectures have since been turned into books.

Most of his books are available at Amazon.com. A few books are described at rdalton.com

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There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom

On December 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Richard Feynman firmly predicted that we would eventualy be able to store information and build working devices on a nanometer scale. He summarized the cause of the current limitations of nanotechnology as "we are not doing it simply because we haven't yet gotten around to it."

The Feynman Prizes, sponsored by the Foresight Institute are awarded to the top contributor to the theoretical and applied fields of nanotechnology. The confidence with which Feynman predicted the successes in this field has helped to encourage scientists to pursue research and has helped encourage the public and corporations to fund projects in nanotechnology.

A copy of his lecture can be found here: "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom"

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Cargo Cult Science

One of Richard Feynman's most valuable contributions to science was his firm belief in scientific integrity. He would challenge any assertion that could not be backed up by solid proof. He was able to apply a critical measure of doubt to anything taken for granted, and was able to clearly explain why that doubt was essential to learning. In his lecture, "Cargo Cult Science," Feynman explains briefly the concept of scientific integrity and illustrates how many modern sciences often deviate from good scientific methods to save money, time or to avoid a risk of failure.

A copy of his lecture can be found here: "Cargo Cult Science"

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