Movies, books, great detectives and coffee breaks.

— Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1981)

On this date in 1918, Richard P. Feynman was born in New York City. Feynman, with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. He received his undergrad degree from MIT in 1939, and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1942. He worked at Los Alamos, then became a professor at Cornell from 1945-1950. Feynman became professor of theoretical physics at California Institute of Technology in 1950. When Physics World polled scientists asking them to rank the greatest physicists, Feynman was rated seventh, behind Galileo. Feynman was a writer and personality, as well. His first popular book was Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman. His academic classic was the 3-volume Lectures on Physics. His sister Joan once said: “If you wanted to have a good party, you had Richard there” (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 2, 2001). InWhat Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988), Feynman described himself as “an avowed atheist” by his early youth. “I thought nature itself was so interesting that I didn’t want it distorted (by miracle stories). And so I gradually came to disbelieve the whole religion.” Feynman was first treated for stomach cancer in 1978. He made headlines after being appointed to a commission investigating the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster, when he figured out and demonstrated what went wrong with the O-rings. D. 1988.

(via nonplussedbyreligion)