The Final Stretch
In
1968, Feynman was called on to research the cause of the Challenger disaster.
Although he retained his aversion to politics, he relented (partially due
to his wife's powers of persuasion). As the investigation continued, it became
apparent that one of the chief causes of failure was the O-rings, which sealed
the joints on the fuel containers. To test his theories on the failure, he
took a section of O-ring home, compressed it with a C-clamp, placed it in
freezing water until the O-ring section reached freezing temperatures, then
released the C-clamp. As he expected, the O-ring took far too long to resume
its original shape. But instead of bringing this directly to the organization,
Feynman's distrust of bureaucracy lead him to take a more direct path. On
a national interview about the results of the investigation, Feynman reproduced
this experiment in front of all of America, also commenting on the priorities
of the administration in the process.
Around this time, he acquired an interest in Tannu Tuva. This small nation in central Asia had, at the time of Feynman's youth, distributed a set of stamps of nonstandard shapes and unique images. While discussing this with a friend of his, Ralph Leighton, they decided to investigate what happened to this nation. As it turns out, Tannu Tuva is a nation roughly the size of Britain, in central Asia that has been a protectorate or part of Russia for quite some time. The coincidence of this coming to light also brought about the discovery of Tuvan throat-singers, singers of a particular style that they can harmonize with themselves, something previously thought to be impossible.
In 1985, Feynman published his book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, an autobiography which relates his life and personal anecdotes, which was a national bestseller for 14 weeks. Posthumously, the sequel, What Do You Care What Other People Think?, was also published.
In 1987, Feynman was discovered to have another cancerous tumor. Although this one was also remover, it left him greatly weakened. He was admitted to a hospital again in February 1988 for a gastrointestinal ulcer, which destroyed his other kidney. Although he could have extended his lifespan by using a dialysis machine, he declined that to accept a natural death. Dr. Richard P. Feynman died on February 15, 1988.