Economics
Is Economics a Science?
A Debate on the Scientific or Ideological Nature of Economics
History
Geometry
How Aristarchus Estimated the Distance to the Sun
How far are you, my Sunshine?
Feynman
Richard Feynman’s First Lecture (1940)
“I went through fire on my first.” While still a graduate student at Princeton University in 1940, Richard P. Feynman (1918–1988) gave his first lecture in a seminar on electrodynamics, the topic that would eventually earn him the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics. In front of a prestigious audience
Gödel
Kurt Gödel's Brilliant Madness
Hungarian polymath John von Neumann (1903–1957) once wrote that Kurt Gödel was “absolutely irreplaceable” and “in a class by himself”.
Ramanujan
Ramanujan’s First Letter to G.H. Hardy (1913)
On or about the 31st of January 1913, mathematician G.H. Hardy (1877-1947) of Trinity College at Cambridge University received a parcel of papers from Madras, India which included a cover letter from an aspiring young Indian mathematician by the name of Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920).
Physics
The Einstein-Szilárd Letter (1939)
The now famous Einstein-Szilárd letter was written at the initiative of Hungarian nuclear physicist Leó Szilárd with help from Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner in 1939.
Feynman
Richard Feynman’s Advice to a Young Stephen Wolfram (1985)
«You don’t understand “ordinary people”. To you they are “stupid fools”» Entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram is a unique egg. By age 14, he had written three books on particle physics. He earned his Ph.D. at age 20 and began publishing research papers at the age of 18, some of
History
How Eratosthenes Calculated the Circumference of The Earth
How big are you, my Earth?
Mathematics
The Duties of John von Neumann’s Assistant in the 1930s
The year is 1933. A 26 year-old former graduate student at Columbia University, Edgar R. Lorch (1907–1990) has just completed his Ph.D. in mathematics and is, in his own words “by some miracle” awarded a National Research Council Fellowship for a year of postdoctoral studies at Harvard University.
von Neumann
John von Neumann’s 1935 letter to Oswald Veblen
Mathematical Gossip
Physics
Oppenheimer’s Letter of Recommendation for Richard Feynman (1943)
Let’s journey back to November 1943. The Manhattan project is in its fourth year of operations, and J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Los Alamos Laboratory is eleven months into its mission of designing and building the first atomic bomb.
Feynman
When Feynman met Dirac
Beloved late physicist Richard P. Feynman (1918–1988) first met his hero Paul Dirac (1902–1984) during Princeton University’s Bicentennial Celebration in 1946 and then again at least twice, in 1948 and 1962.