The Curious Mr. Feynman

From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas — so maybe it’s time to get some more Feynman in our lives? (Part one of a three-part series.) SOURCES: Helen Czerski , physicist and oceanographer at University College London. Michelle Feynman , photographer and daughter of Richard Feynman. Ralph Leighton , biographer and film producer. Charles Mann , science journalist and author. John Preskill , professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Stephen Wolfram , founder and C.E.O. of Wolfram Research; creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. RESOURCES: " How Legendary Physicist Richard Feynman Helped Crack the Case on the Challenger Disaster ," by Kevin Cook ( Literary Hub, 2021). Challenger: The Final Flight , docuseries (2020). Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track: Selected Letters of Richard P. Feynman , edited by Michelle Feynman (2005). The Pleasure of Finding Things Out , by Richard Feynman (1999). Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman , by James Gleick (1992). “What D…