Richard Feynman was a once in a generation intellectual. He had no shortage of brains. (In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics.) He had charisma. (Witness this outtake from his 1964 Cornell physics lectures available here.) He knew how to make science and academic thought available, even entertaining, to a broader public. (We’ve highlighted two public TV programs hosted by Feynman here and here.) And he knew how to have fun. The clip above brings it all together. Hope you enjoy, and don’t miss our collection of Great Science Videos, or many free physics courses in our big collection of Free Online Courses.
Richard Feynman: The Likelihood of Flying Saucers
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I’ve read a couple of books by Feynman and watched several videos out on the web, he was a great voice.
Feynman was truly great (and a real gent) but he also expressed the probability that alien life existed in the universe to Marshall Klarfeld who studied under him at Caltech in the 50’s.
Extrapolating that probability further it would be likely that there are vastly more developed life forms than us in the Universe. Good post.
A, but there is a difference between existence of alien life in the universe and existence of flying saucers, right?
I wonder what he made of Roswell Or the Washington DC 52’ fleet of saucers. And I guess he would surmise they were ‘quantum’ in outlook. Wonderful scientist.