laws of physics | Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

In these Messenger Lectures on “The Character of Physical Law,” originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded by BBC Nov. 9-19, 1964, physicist Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance. From 1945 to 1950, Feynman taught theoretical physics at Cornell. He went on to accept a professorship at Caltech and was named co-winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics.

Feynman participated in the Manhattan Project and like Enrico Fermi, he was able to perform complicated calculations with ease. His first wife was a best friend of his sister. He loved to play games with his children. He taught briefly in Brazil and enjoyed Brazilian music before returning to US. He was offered the Enrico Fermi chair in Physics at the University of Chicago, but did not accept. He also was on the Committee that investigated the space aircraft disaster and performed an experiment on the discussion table that explained the problem, to the dismay of some politicians. He had cancer at the time.

When he gave these amazing lectures, it was said that the many physics students left the room perplexed, and professors and graduate students filled the hall.