科学家趣事 - 费因曼第一次学术讲座 -三丰子- ♀ (2181 bytes) (52 reads) 9/27/08
“撬锁专家”费因曼(Feynman)当年本科毕业时候,本来是想接着在MIT读研究生. MIT的一个教授告诉他,"我们绝对不会录取你。"
费因曼很纳闷,“为什么?我觉得MIT是世界上做科研最好的地方。”
“你是这么认为的?”
“是的。”
“这就是我们不要你的原因.你应该到其他地方看看。”
于是费因曼就去了普林斯顿。 费因曼在普林斯顿的导师是惠勒(Wheeler)。那时候费因曼和惠勒在做量子电动力学里的推迟势问题。 惠勒看到费因曼的成果很高兴,让他在系里开个讲座,作为第一部分。 剩下的问题惠勒决定由自己来推导,完了自己也开个讲座,作为第二部分。
讲座的前几天,系里的头儿很高兴地告诉费因曼,他觉得的费因曼的课题很有新意,就把罗素请来了。年轻的费因曼当时就倒抽了口冷气,罗素(Russell, Henry Norris)那时候已经是很著名的天文学家了。赫罗图中的罗就是罗素,赫是丹麦天文学家赫兹伯论。
费因曼还在抽冷气的时候, 系里的头儿接着兴高采烈地说,爱因斯坦时不常也来听我们讲座,也通知他了,他答应了要来。费因曼听到这,小脸都发黄了。
费因曼还在发懵,系里的头儿接着说,真是巧得很! 泡利(PAULI)正好从瑞士过来,也就邀请他来参加你的讲座。这时候,费因曼小脸是发绿了。
费因曼马上找到惠勒, 告诉了这些人要来,并表示自己要撂挑子了。惠勒鼓励他不要怕,让他只负责讲,惠勒来回答问题。
学生时代的费因曼听到泡利要来听自己讲座,会小脸发绿, 真是合情合理。 泡利是奥地利人,被称作那个时代最聪明的科学家 (量子力学基本假设之一的“泡利不相容原理”)。泡利的聪明和尖刻并列,无人能比。流传比较广的故事是,泡利一次国际会议听万爱因斯坦演讲演,站起来说:“我觉得爱因斯坦不完全是愚蠢的。”
系里的头儿还是很高兴的样子。告诉费因曼不用怕,不过只要记住两点。
第一点, “你讲的时候,会发现罗素在睡觉,这不代表你讲得差。罗素逢讲座必睡, 这个你要知道。”
第二点,“相反,如果发现泡利连连点头,你也不要高兴而大意,他脖子有毛病,是控制不住的点头。”
费因曼讲完后, 连连点头的泡利说 “I DON”T SINK IT IS RIGHT BECAUSE OF DIS, DIS, AND DIS。” 费因曼特爱恶作剧,不光是撬锁,还爱学别人说话。
讲座后泡利问费因曼, 下次惠勒会讲什么东西。费因曼说,不知道, 惠勒说自己要推导。泡利说,那他的讲座肯定是开不成的。 结果惠勒的确没有推导出,讲座取消了。
费因曼对他第一次学术讲座很满意,他遗憾的是对泡利所提的问题没有留神,因为他的导师负责回答问题。
这家伙真幸运!要俺是他,嘿嘿, -Yuan- ♀ (2092 bytes) (5 reads) 9/28/08
俺小脸儿激动得通红,不绿不绿 :D
他的“The Pleasure of Finding Things Out ” (不是他写的,是Jeffery Robbins 编篡的)是俺枕边书之一,这个永葆赤子之心的学界顽童,可爱至极!里头他详细解释了为何撬锁,还有很自鸣得意的不少恶作剧!
再分享些他的精彩话语(俺仔细挑选滴,不是物理!)
1. All mass is interaction.
2. Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is.
3. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
4. Although we humans cut nature up in different ways, and we have different courses in different departments, such compartmentalization is really artificial...
5. There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. (加黑体是因为俺最喜欢这个!)
6. A poet once said "The whole universe is in a glass of wine." We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass closely enough we see the entire universe. There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflections in the glass, and our imaginations adds the atoms. The glass is a distillation of the Earth's rocks, and in its composition we see the secret of the universe's age, and the evolution of the stars. What strange array of chemicals are there in the wine? How did they come to be? There are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products. There in wine is found the great generalization: all life is fermentation. Nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did Louis Pasteur, the cause of much disease. How vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts — physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on — remember that Nature does not know it! So let us put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for. Let it give us one more final pleasure: drink it and forget it all! (同上理由)