Feynman's Rainbow -- Einstein's Dreams meets Tuesdays with Morrie in Leonard Mlodinow's touching memoir about the guidance granted him by his mentor, the brilliant physicist Richard Feynman. For some, it was that special connection with a grandparent or a football coach, a boss, or a cleric. For Leonard Mlodinow, as a young physicist struggling to find his place in the world, the relationship that would most profoundly influence his life was with his mentor, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Drawing on transcripts from his many meetings with Feynman during their time together at CalTech, Mlodinow shares Feynman's provocative answers to such questions as "What is the nature of creativity?" and "How does a scientist think?" At once a moving portrait of a friendship and an affecting account of Feynman's final, creative years, FEYNMAN'S RAINBOW celebrates the inspiring legacy of one of the greatest thinkers of our time. 

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QED: A Play -- With a moving and powerful introduction from Alan Alda. Who knew that quantum electrodynamics could make for a dramatic read? In the hands of the late, great physicist Richard Feynman, it does. Feynman's theory of QED is just one of the many topics the playwright Peter Parnell explores in this nearly-one-man show, a recent Broadway triumph for star Alan Alda as Feynman. Set in Feynman's office on the weekend of his realization that he has terminal cancer, this play is an intellectual tour-de-force that captures the unique, hilarious, and puckish genius that Feynman was. From his work on the Manhattan Project to the death of his beloved first wife, from his mission to reconstruct the Challenger space shuttle tragedy to his Nobel-prize winning physics ideas, the mere resume of Feynman's life is fascinating. But Parnell give us more, letting Feynman fill in the details of his life. When he reads a letter he wrote to his wife after her death, or flirts with a student, or chillingly recalls walking around Manhattan calculating how much damage an atomic bomb could do, we grow to love the man behind the scientist. And we read in fascinating as he puzzles out the problem of his own death. Combining the current interest in science and math in the entertainment world with one of the most entertaining scientists in U.S. history, QED is a tour-de-force.

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No Ordinary Genius by Christopher Sykes.  Sykes is a documentary filmmaker for BBC TV who grew to know the great physicist while making two films about his life. He has compiled selections from Feynman's writings and other sources and arranged them in topical chapters, supplemented with photos. This photo-album tribute presents a series of quick-but-intimate portraits through photographs of Feynman and friends and a selection of entertaining and revealing excerpts from interviews and conversations. The supporting cast includes physicists Richard Davies, Freeman Dyson, David Goodstein, and John Archibald Wheeler as well as a couple of computer scientists, artists, musicians, and Feynman's children. The main events of Feynman's life--winning the Nobel Prize; working at Los Alamos; discoveries in superfluidity, diffusion, and radioactive decay; and investigation into the "Challenger" tragedy -- are all discussed, as is Feynman's gift for having fun.

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Two-Fisted Science, a Xeric Award-winning and Eisner nominated original trade paperback by G.T. Labs, features true stories from the history of science. Some are serious, some are humorous, and most are a bit of both. All are written by Jim Ottaviani and showcase artwork by Mark Badger, Donna Barr, Sean Bieri, Paul Chadwick, Guy Davis, Colleen Doran, David Lasky, Steve Lieber, Lin Lucas, Bernie Mireault, Scott Roberts, Scott Saavedra, and Rob Walton.  128 pages, b/w, painted cover.

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"Most of the Good Stuff" -- Memories of Richard Feynman.  Gell-Mann writes critically of Feynman's aberrations and of his energy, playfulness and vitality, and of his directness. He celebrates the man's creativity. Other contributors (Wheeler, Bethe, Dyson, Schwinger, Bjorken, Goodstein, Cohen, Goldberger, Hillis, Joan Feynman, and the editors) are less critical. The papers are strong on science with a nice leaven of personal comments. A too brief collection of Joan Feynman's photos is included. Few collections dare pass this splendid exposition of a great and humane mind.

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QED and the Men Who Made It.  In the 1930s, physics was in a crisis. There appeared to be no way to reconcile the new theory of quantum mechanics with Einstein's theory of relativity. Several approaches had been tried and had failed. In the post-World War II period, four eminent physicists rose to the challenge and developed a calculable version of quantum electrodynamics (QED), probably the most successful theory in physics. This formulation of QED was pioneered by Freeman Dyson, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, three of whom won the Nobel Prize for their work. In this book, physicist and historian Silvan Schweber tells the story of these four physicists, blending discussions of their scientific work with fascinating biographical sketches. Setting the achievements of these four men in context, Schweber begins with an account of the early work done by physicists such as Dirac and Jordan, and describes the gathering of eminent theorists at Shelter Island in 1947, the meeting that heralded the new era of QED. The rest of his narrative comprises individual biographies of the four physicists, discussions of their major contributions, and the story of the scientific community in which they worked. Throughout, Schweber draws on his technical expertise to offer a lively and lucid explanation of how this theory was finally established as the appropriate way to describe the atomic and subatomic realms.

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Genius.  If you've read any of Richard Feynman's wonderful autobiographies you may think that a biography of Feynman would be a waste of your time. Wrong! Gleick's Genius is a masterpiece of scientific biography -- and an inspiration to anyone in pursuit of their own fulfillment as a person of genius. Deservedly nominated for a National Book Award, undeservedly passed over by the committee in the face of tough competition, and very deservedly a book that you must read.

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Richard Feynman: A Life in Science by John & Mary Gribbin. Few human beings have advanced science further than Richard Feynman. Fewer scientists have made their work so profoundly human. The day he died, students at the California Institute of Technology hung a banner that read, "We love you, Dick." To students of physics all over the world, Feynman was living proof that to lead a life in science you do not need ice for blood and the mind of a Cray computer. Here was someone who combined practical joking, safecracking, and bongo playing with superlative teaching and brilliant insights.  In these pages Feynman emerges in all his vivid complexity. From a childhood shadowed by the Great Depression to his role in the development of the atomic bomb and his landmark investigations into quantumelectrodynamics that would win him the Nobel Prize, Richard Feynman: A Life in Science vividly illuminates the life and times of a man who was one of our greatest physicists. Part biography, part scientific explanation, this unique and fascinating book does full justice to an amazing man and his extraordinary accomplishments.  Read an excerpt.

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The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by Jagdish Mehra.  Noted scientific biographer and physicist, Jagdish Mehra, presents a portrait of one of the greatest American theoretical physicists. After Feynman's death from cancer, Mehra interviewed the physicist's friends and colleagues and shares their recollections of Feynman from childhood to his final days. The author also gives an analysis of the theoretical and technical aspects of Feynman's achievements, from Los Alamos, to the Feynman diagrams, to his pioneering work at Caltech. Sixteen pages of black and white photos are included.

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