An American Physicist in Tuva
By Sean at 17 August, 2009, 12:22 pm
Richard Feynman, famous American physicist, atom bomb maker, father of nanotechnology, and Tuva lover. Feynman discovered the remote region and its nomadic people from stamp collecting during the dark days of the Cold War. Feynman began a long correspondence with one of its residents. Feynman wanted to visit Tuva, but never did. The Cold War prevented him from getting a visa which he documented in the book Tuva or Bust. In pure Soviet bureaucratic fashion, the his visa approval arrived the day after he died.
Feynman didn’t make it to Tuva, but his daughter Michelle did. BBC Radio’s Ilona Vinogradova chronicled her incredibly emotional journey, Feynman’s fascination with Tuva, and the life, customs, and hospitality of the small province on the Mongolian border. Never did Michelle think that she would be slaughtering goats in her father’s honor.
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http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/index.html#data=5|0||6b89dded-3eb8-4fa4-bbcd-7c69fe78ed0c||
I am not sure that the Tuvans are nomadic anymore. No more so than say the Apache. They have the Internet and pizza and stuff. Sergei Shoigu is a Tuvan, isn’t he?
Feynman is a physics superstar. You don’t need to explain us who he is, Sean
p.s. You forgot Feynman diagrams. All the physics around the Big Hadron Collider would be or heavily complicated (if not impossible) without what’s called Feynman diagrams.
*would be heavily complicated
Feynman applied for USSR visa several times but was turned down without explanation. No doubt Soviet authorities did some fact checking and found Feynman a dangerous troublemaker. Feynman publicly criticized Khrushchev for being a hypocrite (when denouncing Stalin), and repeatedly described Soviet Union as a poor backward country.
In his 20s, Feynman held only a lowly job in Los Alamos at the beginning, then he had like three people reporting to him in the Theoretical division… Towards the end of war he got promoted to a mid-level position to lead a group of technicians working on the IBM electro-mechanic punch-card machines to calculate various bomb designs, and thats when he go recognized as a bright young man who could get difficult job done, but he was hardly one of the brains behind the project. By the way, the most important action of the Manhattan Project was not the science done in Los Alamos, but the giant engineering works done in Hanford and Oak Ridge.
Hi Sean,
I´m currently work in a magazine. For the October issue, I intend to write an article about 10 World´s Most Expensive Cities to Live, and Moscow is on the list (rank 3rd). I want to give our readers a clue about the cost of living in your city. Therefore, I really need your help to answer some questions. Can you please help me? You can confirm it directly to my email k_marisa_y@yahoo.com.
Oh, because of tight deadline, can you give the response as soon as possible? Your help will be much appreciated. I´ll be waiting for the good news :p