Book Review

Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman.

It’s really an interesting book to read. Those who already have read it wouldn’t agree less. And as the back cover reads – This collection of the best short works of rule-breaking genius Richard Feynman shows his passion for knowledge and sense of a fun at their most infectious. The revealing and inspiring pieces here span a lifetime of enthusiasm for discovering what makes the world tick – including uproarious tales of early student experiment; safecracking and outwitting US censor during the Second World War; his first lecture as a graduate student (to an audience including Albert Einstein); and the memories of the father who delighted in showing him the world and sparked his insatiable curiosity.

I sand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the rushing waves…mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own business…trillions apart…yet forming white surf in unison.

Ages on ages…before any eyes could see…year after year…thunderously pounding the shore as now. For who, for what? … on a dead planet, with no life to entertain.

Never at rest…tortured by energy..wasted prodigiously by the sun..poured into space. A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea, all molecules repeat the patterns of on another till complex new ones are formed. They make others like themselves … and a new dance starts.

Growing in size and complexity…living things, masses of atoms, DNA, protein…dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle onto the dry land…here it is standing … atoms with consciousness…matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea…wonders at wondering…I … a universe of atoms … an atom in the universe.