"The Making of a Scientist"
by Richard Feynman
Human beings are by nature inquisitive. They often come up with questions about things they see,feel,hear or experience."The Making of a Scientist" is a memoir about how a scientist is born.
Summary
The author explains that he learned from
his father the traits that made him a good
scientist, as indicated by the title of the
piece. Feynman discusses in detail how
his father ‘educated’ him and how it
motivated him for the rest of his life.
What his father gave him were ‘lovely,
interesting discussions’ that caught his
imagination as a child to such a degree
that Feynman always looked forward to
those kind of discussions.
Feynman's father started by introducing
his little son to patterns. It was possible
that he was teaching him maths -
something even more important than
patterns. Thus Feynman started to learn
about the world and how interesting it was.
For him, to know something is to know
why it does something.
The message Feynman tries to convey by
the example of the dinosaur is that when
you read something you must translate it
to something else so that you truly
understand it. His choice of words like
"magnitude" and "consequence" is
deliberate and reflect the deep meaning
of these words.
Similarly, in the case of a bird when it
does something, namely pecks at its
feathers. To know the bird would be to
know why it pecks, and his father explores
Feynman's tentative answer with him
before offering his explanation.
To his earlier insight about the need to
truly know something, this example adds
the further point that the knowledge of
the principle in question is the key to its
answer. The names of the birds or the
relationship between lice and mites--might
be incorrect in the details. But to Feynman
and his father, what really mattered was
the discovery of the principle that some
form of life (no matter how small or
insignificant) would utilize any available
source of food.
Feynman's father also draws a distinction
between recalling the name of a bird and
genuinely knowing something about the
bird. The example is meant to illustrate
that while the same bird is called different
things in different languages, knowing the
names of the bird doesn't tell you
anything about the bird--only about what
humans have called it. For Feynman, what
really matters--the difference between
knowing the name of something and
knowing something--is captured through
knowing what a bird does.
Another incident narrated by Feynman
shows the principle behind inertia--that
things which are moving tend to keep on
moving, and things which are standing still
tend to stand still. This is a point he
stresses in his explanation of what it
means to know something.
By reading and re-reading the passage
closely, combined with classroom
discussions about it, learners will be able
to identify why and how Feynman started
to look at the world through the eyes of a
scientist.
