"Ричард Фейнман. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!/Вы, конечно, шутите, мистер Фейнман! (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

I've invited Russell to the seminar." Henry Norris Russell, the famous,
great astronomer of the day, was coming to the lecture!
Wigner went on. "I think Professor von Neumann would also be
interested." Johnny von Neumann was the greatest mathematician around. "And
Professor Pauli is visiting from Switzerland, it so happens, so I've invited
Professor Pauli to come" - Pauli was a very famous physicist - and by this
time, I'm turning yellow. Finally, Wigner said, "Professor Einstein only
rarely comes to our weekly seminars, but your work is so interesting that
I've invited him specially, so he's coming, too."
By this time I must have turned green, because Wigner said, "No, no!
Don't worry! I'll just warn you, though: If Professor Russell falls asleep
- and he will undoubtedly fall asleep - it doesn't mean that the seminar
is bad; he falls asleep in all the seminars. On the other hand, if Professor
Pauli is nodding all the time, and seems to be in agreement as the seminar
goes along, pay no attention. Professor Pauli has palsy."
I went back to Wheeler and named all the big, famous people who were
coming to the talk he got me to give, and told him I was uneasy about it.
"It's all right," he said. "Don't worry. I'll answer all the
questions."
So I prepared the talk, and when the day came, I went in and did
something that young men who have had no experience in giving talks often do
- I put too many equations up on the blackboard. You see, a young fella
doesn't know how to say, "Of course, that varies inversely, and this goes
this way..." because everybody listening already knows; they can see it. But
he doesn't know. He can only make it come out by actually doing the algebra
- and therefore the reams of equations.
As I was writing these equations all over the blackboard ahead of time,
Einstein came in and said pleasantly, "Hello, I'm coming to your seminar.
But first, where is the tea?"
I told him, and continued writing the equations.
Then the time came to give the talk, and here are these monster minds
in front of me, waiting! My first technical talk - and I have this
audience! I mean they would put me through the wringer! I remember very
clearly seeing my hands shaking as they were pulling out my notes from a
brown envelope.
But then a miracle occurred, as it has occurred again and again in my
life, and it's very lucky for me: the moment I start to think about the
physics, and have to concentrate on what I'm explaining, nothing else
occupies my mind - I'm completely immune to being nervous. So after I
started to go, I just didn't know who was in the room. I was only explaining
this idea, that's all.
But then the end of the seminar came, and it was time for questions.
First off, Pauli, who was sitting next to Einstein, gets up and says, "I do
not sink dis teory can be right, because of dis, and dis, and dis," and he
turns to Einstein and says, "Don't you agree, Professor Einstein?"
Einstein says, "Nooooooooooooo," a nice, German-sounding "No," - very
polite. "I find only that it would be very difficult to make a corresponding
theory for gravitational interaction." He meant for the general theory of
relativity, which was his baby. He continued: "Since we have at this time
not a great deal of experimental evidence, I am not absolutely sure of the