Editing Richard Feynman (section)

== Caltech and later years (1952–1978) ==
[[File:Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman at Jabłonna 1962.png|thumb|Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman at Jabłonna, Poland. July 1962.]]
=== Personal and political life ===
Feynman did not return to Cornell. Bacher, who had been instrumental in bringing Feynman to Cornell, had lured him to the [[California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech). Part of the deal was that he could spend his first year on sabbatical in Brazil.{{sfn|Feynman|1985|pp=233–236}}{{sfn|Gleick|1992|p=277}} He had become smitten by Mary Louise Bell from [[Neodesha, Kansas]]. They had met in a cafeteria in Cornell, where she had studied the history of Mexican art and textiles. She later followed him to Caltech, where he gave a lecture. While he was in Brazil, she taught classes on the history of furniture and interiors at [[Michigan State University]]. He proposed to her by mail from Rio de Janeiro, and they married in [[Boise, Idaho]], on June 28, 1952, shortly after he returned. They frequently quarreled and she was frightened by what she described as "a violent temper".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who smeared Richard Feynman? |url=https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/07/11/smeared-richard-feynman/ |access-date=October 17, 2024 |website=Restricted Data: A Nuclear History Blog |language=en-US}}</ref> Their politics were different; although he registered and voted as a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]], she was more conservative, and her opinion on the 1954 [[Oppenheimer security hearing]] ("Where there's smoke there's fire") offended him. They separated on May 20, 1956. An interlocutory decree of divorce was entered on June 19, 1956, on the grounds of "extreme cruelty". The divorce became final on May 5, 1958.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=291–294}}<ref name="Who smeared Richard Feynman?">{{cite web |author1=Wellerstein |first=Alex |author-link=Alex Wellerstein |date=July 11, 2014 |title=Who smeared Richard Feynman? |url=https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/07/11/smeared-richard-feynman/ |access-date=June 10, 2023 |publisher=Restricted Data}}</ref>

{{blockquote| ... the appointee's wife was granted a divorce from him because of appointee's constantly working calculus problems in his head as soon as awake, while driving car, sitting in living room, and so forth, and that his one hobby was playing his African drums. His ex-wife reportedly testified that on several occasions when she unwittingly disturbed either his calculus or his drums he flew into a violent rage, during which time he choked her, threw pieces of bric-a-brac about and smashed the furniture ...
|author=Special Agent in Charge in Los Angeles|title=in mail to FBI director, July 24, 1958<ref>{{Cite web |title=FOIA Responsive documents of FBI Files on Richard Feynman |url=https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/fbi-files-on-richard-feynman-1165/#file-4617|page=64 |website=MuckRock.com|date=March 12, 2012 }}</ref>|source=}}

In the wake of the 1957 [[Sputnik crisis]], the U.S. government's interest in science rose for a time. Feynman was considered for a seat on the [[President's Science Advisory Committee]], but was not appointed. At this time, the FBI interviewed a woman close to Feynman, possibly his ex-wife Bell, who sent a written statement to [[J. Edgar Hoover]] on August 8, 1958:{{blockquote|I do not know—but I believe that Richard Feynman is either a Communist or very strongly pro-Communist—and as such is a very definite security risk. This man is, in my opinion, an extremely complex and dangerous person, a very dangerous person to have in a position of public trust&nbsp;... In matters of intrigue Richard Feynman is, I believe immensely clever—indeed a genius—and he is, I further believe, completely ruthless, unhampered by morals, ethics, or religion—and will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his ends.<ref name="Who smeared Richard Feynman?" />}}

The U.S. government nevertheless sent Feynman to Geneva for the September 1958 [[Atoms for Peace]] Conference. On the beach at [[Lake Geneva]], he met Gweneth Howarth, who was from [[Ripponden]], West Yorkshire, and working in Switzerland as an ''[[au pair]]''. Feynman's love life had been turbulent since his divorce; his previous girlfriend had walked off with his [[Albert Einstein Award]] medal and, on the advice of an earlier girlfriend, had feigned pregnancy and extorted him into paying for an abortion, then used the money to buy furniture. When Feynman found that Howarth was being paid only $25 a month, he offered her $20 (equivalent to $202 in 2022) a week to be his live-in maid. Feynman knew that this sort of behavior was illegal under the [[Mann Act]], so he had a friend, [[Matthew Sands]], act as her sponsor. Howarth pointed out that she already had two boyfriends, but decided to take Feynman up on his offer, and arrived in [[Altadena, California]], in June 1959. She made a point of dating other men, but Feynman proposed in early 1960. They were married on September 24, 1960, at the [[The Langham Huntington, Pasadena|Huntington Hotel]] in Pasadena. They had a son, Carl, in 1962, and adopted a daughter, Michelle, in 1968.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=339–347}}{{sfn|Gribbin|Gribbin|1997|pp=151–153}} Besides their home in Altadena, they had a beach house in Baja California, purchased with the money from Feynman's Nobel Prize.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://justalifestory.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/a-weekend-at-richard-feynmans-house/ |title=A Weekend at Richard Feynman's House |publisher=It's Just A Life Story |access-date=July 15, 2016 |date= November 19, 2008 |archive-date= October 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007144513/https://justalifestory.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/a-weekend-at-richard-feynmans-house/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Allegations of sexism ===
There were protests over his alleged sexism at Caltech in 1968, and again in 1972. Protesters "objected to his use of sexist stories about 'lady drivers' and clueless women in his lectures."{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=409–412}}<ref name="1999Tech">{{Cite web |author1=Lipman |first=Julia C. |date=March 5, 1999 |title=Finding the Real Feynman |url=http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N10/col10lipman.10c.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010222233/http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N10/col10lipman.10c.html |archive-date=October 10, 2019 |access-date=October 9, 2019 |publisher=The Tech}}</ref> Feynman recalled protesters entering a hall and picketing a lecture he was about to make in San Francisco, calling him a "sexist pig". He later reflected on the incident claiming that it prompted him to address the protesters, saying that "women do indeed suffer prejudice and discrimination in physics, and your presence here today serves to remind us of these difficulties and the need to remedy them".{{sfn|Feynman|1988a|p=74}} 

In his 1985 memoir, ''[[Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!]]'', he recalled holding meetings in strip clubs, drawing naked portraits of his female students while lecturing at Caltech, and pretending to be an undergraduate to deceive younger women into sleeping with him.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Feynman |first=Richard P. |title="Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!": adventures of a curious character |last2=Leighton |first2=Ralph |last3=Hutchings |first3=Edward |date=1985 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-01921-6 |location=New York}}</ref>

=== Feynman diagram van ===
In 1975, in [[Long Beach, CA]], Feynman bought a [[Dodge Tradesman]] Maxivan  with a bronze-khaki exterior and yellow-green interior, with custom [[Feynman diagram]] exterior murals.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.feynman.com/fun/the-feynman-van/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218131318/https://www.feynman.com/fun/the-feynman-van/ | archive-date=December 18, 2019 | title=The Feynman van – Richard Feynman }}</ref> After Feynman's death, Gweneth  sold the van for $1 to one of Feynman's friends, film producer Ralph Leighton, who later put it into storage, where it began to rust. In 2012, video game designer [[Seamus Blackley]], a father of the [[Xbox]], bought the van.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jepsen |first=Kathryn |date=August 5, 2014 |title=Saving the Feynman van |url=https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2014/saving-the-feynman-van |access-date=June 23, 2022 |website=Symmetry Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Freakonomics">{{cite web |last1=Dubner |first1=Stephen J. |author1-link=Stephen J. Dubner |title=The Brilliant Mr. Feynman |url=https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-brilliant-mr-feynman/ |website=Freakonomics |access-date=February 9, 2024 |language=en |date=February 7, 2024}}</ref> ''Qantum'' was the license plate ID.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.lizalzonaart.com/quantum | title=Quantum }}</ref>{{When|date=March 2025}}

=== Physics ===
At Caltech, Feynman investigated the physics of the [[superfluid]]ity of supercooled [[liquid helium]], where helium seems to display a complete lack of [[viscosity]] when flowing. Feynman provided a quantum-mechanical explanation for the Soviet physicist [[Lev Landau]]'s theory of superfluidity.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=299–303}} Applying the Schrödinger equation to the question showed that the superfluid was displaying quantum mechanical behavior observable on a macroscopic scale. This helped with the problem of [[superconductivity]], but the solution eluded Feynman.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pines|first1=David|title=Richard Feynman and Condensed Matter Physics|journal=Physics Today|volume=42|page=61|year=1989|doi=10.1063/1.881194|bibcode = 1989PhT....42b..61P|issue=2}}</ref> It was solved with the [[BCS theory]] of superconductivity, proposed by [[John Bardeen]], [[Leon Neil Cooper]], and [[John Robert Schrieffer]] in 1957.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=299–303}}

[[File:RichardFeynman-PaineMansionWoods1984 copyrightTamikoThiel bw.jpg|alt=Feynman standing among trees|thumb|left|Feynman at the [[Robert Treat Paine Estate]] in [[Waltham, Massachusetts]], in 1984]]
Feynman, inspired by a desire to quantize the Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory of electrodynamics, laid the groundwork for the path integral formulation and Feynman diagrams.{{sfn|Mehra|1994|pp=92–101}}

With [[Murray Gell-Mann]], Feynman developed a model of [[weak decay]], which showed that the current coupling in the process is a combination of vector and axial currents (an example of weak decay is the decay of a neutron into an electron, a proton, and an [[antineutrino]]). Although [[E. C. George Sudarshan]] and Robert Marshak developed the theory nearly simultaneously, Feynman's collaboration with Gell-Mann was seen as seminal because the [[weak interaction]] was neatly described by the vector and axial currents. It thus combined the 1933 [[beta decay]] theory of [[Enrico Fermi]] with an explanation of [[parity violation]].{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=330–339}}

Feynman attempted an explanation, called the [[parton model]], of the [[strong interaction]]s governing nucleon scattering. The parton model emerged as a complement to the [[quark model]] developed by Gell-Mann. The relationship between the two models was murky; Gell-Mann referred to Feynman's partons derisively as "put-ons". In the mid-1960s, physicists believed that quarks were just a bookkeeping device for symmetry numbers, not real particles; the statistics of the [[omega-minus particle]], if it were interpreted as three identical strange quarks bound together, seemed impossible if quarks were real.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=387–396}}{{sfn|Mehra|1994|pp=507–514}}

The [[SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory]] [[deep inelastic scattering]] experiments of the late 1960s showed that [[nucleon]]s (protons and neutrons) contained point-like particles that scattered electrons. It was natural to identify these with quarks, but Feynman's parton model attempted to interpret the experimental data in a way that did not introduce additional hypotheses. For example, the data showed that some 45% of the energy momentum was carried by electrically neutral particles in the nucleon. These electrically neutral particles are now seen to be the [[gluon]]s that carry the forces between the quarks, and their three-valued color quantum number solves the omega-minus problem. Feynman did not dispute the quark model; for example, when the fifth quark was discovered in 1977, Feynman immediately pointed out to his students that the discovery implied the existence of a sixth quark, which was discovered in the decade after his death.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=387–396}}{{sfn|Mehra|1994|pp=516–519}}

After the success of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman turned to [[quantum gravity]]. By analogy with the photon, which has spin 1, he investigated the consequences of a free massless spin 2 field and derived the [[Einstein field equation]] of general relativity, but little more. The computational device that Feynman discovered then for gravity, "ghosts", which are "particles" in the interior of his diagrams that have the "wrong" connection between spin and statistics, have proved invaluable in explaining the quantum particle behavior of the [[Yang–Mills theory|Yang–Mills theories]], for example, [[quantum chromodynamics]] and the [[electro-weak]] theory.{{sfn|Mehra|1994|pp=505–507}} He did work on all four of the [[fundamental interactions]] of nature: [[electromagnetic force|electromagnetic]], the [[weak force]], the [[strong force]] and gravity. John and Mary Gribbin state in their book on Feynman that "Nobody else has made such influential contributions to the investigation of all four of the interactions".{{sfn|Gribbin|Gribbin|p=189|1997}}

Partly as a way to bring publicity to progress in physics, Feynman offered $1,000 prizes for two of his challenges in nanotechnology; one was claimed by [[William McLellan (nanotechnology)|William McLellan]] and the other by [[Tom Newman (scientist)|Tom Newman]].{{sfn|Gribbin|Gribbin|1997|p=170}}

Feynman was also interested in the relationship between physics and computation. He was also one of the first scientists to conceive the possibility of [[quantum computer]]s.<ref name="mike_ike">{{Cite book|last1=Nielsen|first1=Michael A.|author-link1=Michael Nielsen |last2=Chuang|first2=Isaac L. |author-link2=Isaac Chuang |title=Quantum Computation and Quantum Information|title-link=Quantum Computation and Quantum Information|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=Cambridge|year=2010|edition=10th anniversary|oclc=844974180 |isbn=978-1-107-00217-3 |page=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title-link= Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction |title=Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction|last1=Rieffel|first1=Eleanor G.|last2=Polak|first2=Wolfgang H.|date=March 4, 2011|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-01506-6|language=en|author-link=Eleanor Rieffel |page=44}}</ref>{{sfn|Deutsch|1992|pp=57–61}} In the 1980s he began to spend his summers working at [[Thinking Machines Corporation]], helping to build some of the first parallel supercomputers and considering the construction of quantum computers.{{sfn|Hillis|1989|pp=78–83}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Feynman |first=Richard |title=Simulating Physics with Computers |journal=International Journal of Theoretical Physics |volume=21 |pages=467–488 |year=1982 |doi=10.1007/BF02650179 |bibcode=1982IJTP...21..467F |issue=6–7|citeseerx = 10.1.1.45.9310 |s2cid=124545445}}</ref>

Between 1984 and 1986, he developed a variational method for the approximate calculation of path integrals, which has led to a powerful method of converting divergent perturbation expansions into convergent strong-coupling expansions ([[variational perturbation theory]]) and, as a consequence, to the most accurate determination<ref>{{cite journal |title=Specific heat of liquid helium in zero gravity very near the lambda point |last=Kleinert |first=Hagen |journal=Physical Review D |volume=60 |page=085001 |year=1999 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.60.085001 |arxiv=hep-th/9812197 |bibcode=1999PhRvD..60h5001K |author-link=Hagen Kleinert |issue=8|s2cid=117436273}}</ref> of [[critical exponent]]s measured in satellite experiments.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Specific heat of liquid helium in zero gravity very near the lambda point |last1=Lipa |first1=J. A. |journal=Physical Review B |volume=68 |page=174518 |year=2003 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevB.68.174518 |last2=Nissen |first2=J. |last3=Stricker |first3=D. |last4=Swanson |first4=D. |last5=Chui |first5=T. |arxiv=cond-mat/0310163 |bibcode=2003PhRvB..68q4518L |issue=17|s2cid=55646571}}</ref> At Caltech, he once chalked "What I cannot create I do not understand" on his blackboard.<ref name="Way2017">{{cite journal|last1=Way|first1=Michael|title=What I cannot create, I do not understand|journal=Journal of Cell Science|volume=130|issue=18|year=2017|pages=2941–2942|issn=1477-9137|doi=10.1242/jcs.209791|pmid=28916552|s2cid=36379246|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Machine technology===
Feynman had studied the ideas of [[John von Neumann]] while researching quantum field theory. His most famous lecture on the subject was delivered in 1959 at the California Institute of Technology, published under the title "[[There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom]]" a year later. In this lecture he theorized on future opportunities for designing miniaturized machines, which could build smaller [[reproduction]]s of themselves. This lecture is frequently cited in technical literature on [[microtechnology]], and nanotechnology.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Algorithms and Law | editor1=Martin Ebers | editor2= Susana Navas |publisher= Cambridge University Press |year=2020 |isbn=9781108424820 | pages=5–6}}</ref>

=== Pedagogy ===
[[File:HD.3A.053 (10481714045).jpg|alt=Feynman standing before a large blackboard with chalk writing all over it|thumb|upright=1.2|Feynman during a lecture]]
In the early 1960s, Feynman acceded to a request to "spruce up" the teaching of undergraduates at the California Institute of Technology, also called Caltech. After three years devoted to the task, he produced a series of lectures that later became ''[[The Feynman Lectures on Physics]]''. Accounts vary about how successful the original lectures were. Feynman's own preface, written just after an exam on which the students did poorly, was somewhat pessimistic. His colleagues [[David L. Goodstein]] and [[Gerry Neugebauer]] said later that the intended audience of first-year students found the material intimidating while older students and faculty found it inspirational, so the lecture hall remained full even as the first-year students dropped away. In contrast, physicist Matthew Sands recalled the student attendance as being typical for a large lecture course.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Sands|first=Matthew| date=April 1, 2005| title=Capturing the Wisdom of Feynman| journal=Physics Today| volume=58| issue=4|pages=49–55 |doi=10.1063/1.1955479| issn=0031-9228| bibcode=2005PhT....58d..49S| doi-access=free}}</ref>

Converting the lectures into books occupied [[Matthew Sands]] and [[Robert B. Leighton]] as part-time co-authors for several years. Feynman suggested that the book cover should have a picture of a drum with mathematical diagrams about vibrations drawn upon it, in order to illustrate the application of mathematics to understanding the world. Instead, the publishers gave the books plain red covers, though they included a picture of Feynman playing drums in the foreword.{{sfn| Feynman| 1985| pp=318}} Even though the books were not adopted by universities as textbooks, they continue to sell well because they provide a deep understanding of physics.{{sfn|Gleick |1992| pp=357–364}}

Many of Feynman's lectures and miscellaneous talks were turned into other books, including ''[[The Character of Physical Law]]'', ''[[QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter]]'', ''Statistical Mechanics'', ''Lectures on Gravitation'', and the ''Feynman Lectures on Computation''.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=12–13}}

Feynman wrote about his experiences teaching physics undergraduates in [[Brazil]]. The students' studying habits and the Portuguese language textbooks were so devoid of any context or applications for their information that, in Feynman's opinion, the students were not learning physics at all. At the end of the year, Feynman was invited to give a lecture on his teaching experiences, and he agreed to do so, provided he could speak frankly, which he did.{{sfn|Feynman|1985|pp=241–246}}{{sfn|Mehra|1994|pp=336–341}}

Feynman opposed [[rote learning]], or unthinking [[memorization]], as well as other [[teaching method]]s that emphasized form over function. In his mind, ''clear thinking'' and ''clear presentation'' were fundamental prerequisites for his [[attention]]. It could be perilous even to approach him unprepared, and he did not forget fools and pretenders.{{sfn|Bethe|1991|p=241}}

In 1964, he served on the California State Curriculum Commission, which was responsible for approving [[textbook]]s to be used by schools in [[California]]. He was not impressed with what he found.{{sfn|Feynman|1985|pp=288–302}} Many of the mathematics texts covered subjects of use only to [[Pure mathematics|pure mathematicians]] as part of the "[[New Math]]". Elementary students were taught about [[Set (mathematics)|sets]], but: {{blockquote|It will perhaps surprise most people who have studied these textbooks to discover that the symbol ∪ or ∩ representing union and intersection of sets and the special use of the brackets { } and so forth, all the elaborate notation for sets that is given in these books, almost never appear in any writings in theoretical physics, in engineering, in business arithmetic, computer design, or other places where mathematics is being used. I see no need or reason for this all to be explained or to be taught in school. It is not a useful way to express one's self. It is not a cogent and simple way. It is claimed to be precise, but precise for what purpose?<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2362/1/feynman.pdf|title=New Textbooks for the "New" Mathematics|last=Feynman|first=Richard P.|journal=Engineering and Science| issn=0013-7812| volume=28| issue=6| pages=9–15| publisher=California Institute of Technology| date=March 1965| access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref>}}

In April 1966, Feynman delivered an address to the [[National Science Teachers Association]], in which he suggested how [[student]]s could be made to think like [[scientist]]s, be open-minded, curious, and especially, to [[doubt]]. In the course of the lecture, he gave a definition of science, which he said came about by several stages. The evolution of [[intelligent]] life on planet Earth—creatures such as cats that play and learn from experience. The evolution of humans, who came to use language to pass knowledge from one individual to the next, so that the knowledge was not lost when an individual died. Unfortunately, incorrect [[knowledge]] could be passed down as well as correct knowledge, so another step was needed. [[Galileo]] and others started doubting the truth of what was passed down and to investigate ''[[ab initio]]'', from experience, what the true situation was—this was science.{{sfn|Feynman|1999|pp=184–185}}

In 1974, Feynman delivered the Caltech commencement address on the topic of ''[[cargo cult science]]'', which has the semblance of science, but is only [[pseudoscience]] due to a lack of "a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty" on the part of the scientist. He instructed the graduating class that "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that."<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/51/2/CargoCult.pdf|title=Cargo Cult Science|last=Feynman|first=Richard P.|journal=Engineering and Science| issn=0013-7812| volume=37|issue=7| pages=10–13| publisher=California Institute of Technology|date=June 1974|access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref>

Feynman served as doctoral advisor to 30 students.<ref name="31students">{{cite journal |last=Van Kortryk |first=T. |date=May 2017 |title=The doctoral students of Richard Feynman |journal=Physics Today |issue=5 |page=12179 |arxiv=1801.04574 |doi=10.1063/PT.5.9100 |bibcode=2017PhT..2017e2179. |s2cid=119088526}}</ref>

=== Case before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ===
In 1977, Feynman supported his English literature colleague [[Jenijoy La Belle]], who had been hired as Caltech's first female professor in 1969, and filed suit with the [[Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]] after she was refused tenure in 1974. The EEOC ruled against Caltech in 1977, adding that La Belle had been paid less than male colleagues. La Belle finally received tenure in 1979. Many of Feynman's colleagues were surprised that he took her side, but he had gotten to know La Belle and liked and admired her.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=409–412}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/175/1/La_Belle,_J._OHO.pdf |title=Interview with Jenijoy La Belle | publisher=Caltech |access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref>

=== ''Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'' ===
In the 1960s, Feynman began thinking of writing an autobiography, and he began granting interviews to historians. In the 1980s, working with [[Ralph Leighton]] (Robert Leighton's son), he recorded chapters on [[tape recorder|audio tape]] that Ralph transcribed. The book was published in 1985 as ''[[Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!]]'' and became a best-seller.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=409–411}}

Gell-Mann was upset by Feynman's account in the book of the weak interaction work, and threatened to sue, resulting in a correction being inserted in later editions.{{sfn|Gleick|1992|p=411}} This incident was just the latest provocation in decades of bad feeling between the two scientists. Gell-Mann often expressed frustration at the attention Feynman received;<ref>{{cite news |author-link=George Johnson (writer) |first=George |last=Johnson |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/07/the-jaguar-and-the-fox/378264/ |title=The Jaguar and the Fox |newspaper=[[The Atlantic]] |date=July 2000 |access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref> he remarked: {{nobr|"[Feynman]}} was a great scientist, but he spent a great deal of his effort generating anecdotes about himself."<ref name="Gell-Mann">{{YouTube|rnMsgxIIQEE|title=Murray Gell-Mann talks about Richard Feynman in January 12, 2012}}</ref>

Feynman has been criticized for a chapter in the book entitled "You Just ''Ask'' Them?", where he describes how he learned to seduce women at a bar he went to in the summer of 1946. A mentor taught him to ask a woman if she would sleep with him before buying her anything. He describes seeing women at the bar as "bitches" in his thoughts, and tells a story of how he told a woman named Ann that she was "worse than a whore" after Ann persuaded him to buy her sandwiches by telling him he could eat them at her place, but then, after he bought them, saying they actually could not eat together because another man was coming over. Later on that same evening, Ann returned to the bar to take Feynman to her place.{{sfn|Feynman|1985|pp=184–191}}{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=287–291, 341–345}}<ref>Multiple sources:
*{{cite web |url=https://qz.com/quartzy/1394785/replacing-names-in-science-after-metoo |title=Replacing names in science after #MeToo |first=Jane C. |last=Hu |publisher=Quartzy |date=September 19, 2018 |access-date=June 10, 2023 |ref=none}}
*{{cite news |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/09/opinion/urry-women-science/index.html |title=Sexual harassment in science needs to stop (Opinion) |first=Meg |last=Urry |publisher=CNN |date=August 9, 2014 |access-date=June 10, 2023 |ref=none}}
*{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/lawrence-krauss-sexual-misconduct-me-too-arizona-state/573844/ |title=Lawrence Krauss and the Legacy of Harassment in Science: The theoretical physicist isn't the first celebrity scientist to be accused of sexual misconduct, but he is the first to face consequences |first=Marina |last=Koren |magazine=The Atlantic |date=October 24, 2018 |access-date=September 26, 2019 |archive-date=May 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210530042235/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/10/lawrence-krauss-sexual-misconduct-me-too-arizona-state/573844/ |url-status=live |ref=none}}</ref> Feynman states at the end of the chapter that this behaviour was not typical of him: "So it worked even with an ordinary girl! But no matter how effective the lesson was, I never really used it after that. I didn't enjoy doing it that way. But it was interesting to know that things worked much differently from how I was brought up."{{sfn|Feynman|1985|p=191}}

=== ''Challenger'' disaster ===
[[File:Challenger explosion.jpg|alt=A cloud of smoke|thumb|The 1986 [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]]]]
Feynman played an important role on the Presidential [[Rogers Commission]], which investigated the 1986 [[Space Shuttle Challenger disaster|Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster]]. He had been reluctant to participate, but was persuaded by advice from his wife.<ref name="1988_Orings">{{Cite journal |doi=10.1063/1.881143 |last=Feynman |first=Richard P |title=An Outsider's Inside View of the Challenger Inquiry |journal=Physics Today |year=1988b |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=26–37 |bibcode=1988PhT....41b..26F |quote=Gweneth... explained how she thought I would make a unique contribution—in a way that I am modest enough not to describe. Nevertheless, I believed what she said. So I said, 'OK. I'll accept.' |url=https://authors.library.caltech.edu/51304/1/challenger.pdf |access-date=April 26, 2021 |archive-date=August 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817022920/https://authors.library.caltech.edu/51304/1/challenger.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Feynman clashed several times with commission chairman [[William P. Rogers]]. During a break in one hearing, Rogers told commission member [[Neil Armstrong]], "Feynman is becoming a pain in the ass."{{sfn|Gleick|1992|p=423}}

During a televised hearing, Feynman demonstrated that the material used in the shuttle's [[O-ring]]s became less resilient in cold weather by compressing a sample of the material in a clamp and immersing it in ice-cold water.<ref>{{Harvnb|Feynman|1988a|p=151}}.</ref> The commission ultimately determined that the disaster was caused by the primary O-ring not properly sealing in unusually cold weather at [[Cape Canaveral]].<ref name="NYT_Feynman">{{cite news |author=Gleick |first=James |date=February 17, 1988 |title=Richard Feynman Dead at 69; Leading Theoretical Physicist |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/feynman-obit.html |access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref>

Feynman devoted the latter half of his 1988 book ''[[What Do You Care What Other People Think?]]'' to his experience on the Rogers Commission, straying from his usual convention of brief, light-hearted anecdotes to deliver an extended and sober narrative. Feynman's account reveals a disconnect between [[NASA]]'s engineers and executives that was far more striking than he expected. His interviews of NASA's high-ranking managers revealed startling misunderstandings of elementary concepts. For instance, NASA managers claimed that there was a 1 in 100,000 probability of a catastrophic failure aboard the Shuttle, but Feynman discovered that NASA's own engineers estimated the probability of a catastrophe at closer to 1 in 200. He concluded that NASA management's estimate of the reliability of the Space Shuttle was unrealistic, and he was particularly angered that NASA used it to recruit [[Christa McAuliffe]] into the Teacher-in-Space program. He warned in his appendix to the commission's report (which was included only after he threatened not to sign the report), "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."<ref>{{cite web |author=Feynman |first=Richard P. |title=Appendix F – Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle |url=https://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505212635/https://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |access-date=September 11, 2017 |publisher=Kennedy Space Center}}</ref>

=== Recognition and awards ===
The first public recognition of Feynman's work came in 1954, when [[Lewis Strauss]], the chairman of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) notified him that he had won the Albert Einstein Award, which was worth $15,000 and came with a gold medal. Because of Strauss's actions in stripping Oppenheimer of his security clearance, Feynman was reluctant to accept the award, but [[Isidor Isaac Rabi]] cautioned him: "You should never turn a man's generosity as a sword against him. Any virtue that a man has, even if he has many vices, should not be used as a tool against him."{{sfn|Gleick|1992|pp=295–296}} It was followed by the AEC's [[Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award]] in 1962.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://science.osti.gov/lawrence/Award-Laureates/1960s/feynman |title=LAWRENCE Richard P. Feynman, 196... |date=December 28, 2010 |publisher=United States Department of Energy |access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref> Schwinger, Tomonaga and Feynman shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics "for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1965 |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=July 15, 2016 |archive-date=April 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407012150/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/ |url-status=live}}</ref> He was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1965#Foreign Members|Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1965]],<ref name="nobelbio" /><ref name=frs>{{Cite journal | last1 = Mehra | first1 = J.| doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2002.0007 | title = Richard Phillips Feynman 11 May 1918&nbsp;– 15 February 1988 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 48 | pages = 97–128 | year = 2002 | s2cid = 62221940}}</ref> received the [[Oersted Medal]] in 1972,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://aapt.org/programs/awards/oersted.cfm |title=The Oersted Medal |publisher=[[American Association of Physics Teachers]] |access-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref> and the [[National Medal of Science]] in 1979.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=126 |title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details |publisher=[[National Science Foundation]] |access-date=July 15, 2016 |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505210032/https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=126 |url-status=live}}</ref> He was elected a [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences]], but ultimately resigned<ref name="elitist">{{cite journal|url=https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v8n3/toumey.html|publisher=[[Virginia Tech]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319115654/https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v8n3/toumey.html|archive-date=March 19, 2019|first=Chris |last=Toumey|year=2005|title=SPT v8n3 – Reviews – Feynman Unprocessed|issue=3|journal=Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology|volume=8|doi=10.5840/techne20058314}}</ref><ref name=f1>{{Cite book|title=Perfectly reasonable deviations from the beaten track : the letters of Richard P. Feynman|date=2005|publisher=Basic Books|first1=Richard|last1=Feynman|last2=Feynman|first2= Michelle|isbn=0738206369|location=New York|oclc=57393623}}</ref> and is no longer listed by them.{{sfn|Feynman|1999|p=13}} Schwinger called him "an honest man, the outstanding intuitionist of our age, and a prime example of what may lie in store for anyone who dares follow the beat of a different drum."{{sfnp| Gleick| 1992| p=16}}