Lunch with Freeman Dyson

Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by dunkelheit on Thursday March 05, 2020 @05:07PM (#22498870)

I enjoy reading about Dyson and reading his writings. Among the greats he seems the most human. Von Neumann was always this martian with an IQ of 500, Einstein the quintessential absent-minded professor, Feynman the trickster genius, Landau the force if nature in life and research. But stories about Dyson always radiate human warmth. Very inspiring.

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by mhh__ on Thursday March 05, 2020 @10:43PM (#22500825)

I actually think Schwinger is (one of) the most human, by which I mean flawed.

He was famous - from Gell-Mann to Dyson to [insert famous field theorist] - for being deliberately incomprehensible when explaining himself, very stubborn when it came to new ideas (to an almost ridiculous extent if Murray Gell-Mann was being serious) and almost literally obsessed with mathematical beauty over matching experiment.

Feynman was also flawed, but more as a man than a scientist.

Edit: A lesser-known but still very important particle physicist, Tom Kibble was known for being extremely humble and straightforward: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glHr9yrV2AI

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by ethn on Friday March 06, 2020 @04:07AM (#22502085)

https://youtu.be/UKbp85zpdcY?t=270 Freeman Dyson speaking to the candidness of Schwinger in private one-on-one discussions.

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by lqet on Friday March 06, 2020 @06:30AM (#22502778)

Thanks, the whole interview is extremely interesting and relaxing to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzDA6mtmKQE...

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by mhh__ on Friday March 06, 2020 @05:51AM (#22502588)

That's actually partly what I meant in the sense that he was still normal underneath the ego(?)

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by dr_dshiv on Friday March 06, 2020 @02:58AM (#22501767)

He told us a story about being in London during ww2 as a teenager. He remarked, with a grin, that he wasn't afraid. Like a teenager, he rather enjoyed the crinkly sound of buildings getting crushed. !

He fell in love with math reading Bell's "Men of Mathematics"

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by contingencies on Thursday March 05, 2020 @06:38PM (#22499616)

Sounds like his mother had a lot to do with that.

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Re:Lunch with Freeman Dyson by scottlocklin on Thursday March 05, 2020 @08:03PM (#22500156)

He's the only Christian of the five you mention. Dunno if that was done on purpose.

He does seem especially nice though.

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