The is an excellent scientific biography, that is one that focuses on the story of the physics that Feynman developed, as opposed to the story of his personal life. If you want a biography of his personal life, I highly recommend Gleick's "Genius", it is 80% about the man and 20% about his physics, whereas this book is 90% about Feynmam's physics. His personal life is discussed, but it is ancillary to the physics in the book. I think that Professor Krauss was largely successful in addressing the questions of:

· What were Feynman's scientific contributions?

· What influenced his scientific ideas?

· What influence did he have on physics?

· What drove him; in essence what made Feynman one of the seminal physicists of the 20th century?

Addressing these questions required quite a bit of physics, but physics that is presented without a single mathematical equation. This was not an easy task, and in some areas Professor Krauss was more successful than in others. I found Feynman's discussion of QED (in his book of the same name) to be superior to that presented here, but I nonetheless did learn some new ideas from this book concerning this subject. Most importantly, I learned that the idea of renormalization was not Feynman's and that it was not just a piece of slight of hand that had to be introduced to overcome the infinities inherent in the theory. I also got a better appreciation of why it may actually be an indispensable reflection of nature, rather than a mathematical shortcut. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of Feynman's approach to quantum mechanics, his work on superfluidity and nuclear physics, and I found the discussion of quantum computers to be extremely illuminating.

Rather than just building on the work of others, Feynman taught himself why things behaved as they did, thus satisfying his need to understand things in his own unique manner. This led him to develop unique solutions to problems, and while this sometimes led him to lose out in the race for the laurels given to the first to explain phenomena, it often had unexpected payoffs, sometimes decades later.

While there are no equations in the book, it contains a lot of physics and readers with no background in this subject will likely be frustrated and disappointed. Thus, I rate this book at five stars only for those with a decent background in physics. This book is probably not a good choice for those who think, based on the books of Feynman anecdotes, that Feynman is a cool guy and want another book about his life that illustrates this. He was indeed a "cool guy", and I think even more so in the way that he tackled physics problems than in his personal life, and this book does an excellent job of describing this. The book shows that Feynman was a unique physicist, one driven to understand nature, rather than the riches that such an understanding might bring.

I still remember the day when, as a kid, I first came across the irrepressible Richard Feynman's memoirs "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman". Within a few hours I was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of my eyes. Whether he was fixing radios 'by thinking', devising novel methods of cutting string beans in a restaurant or cracking the safes at Los Alamos, Feynman was unlike any scientist I had ever come across. Feynman died in 1988 and James Gleick's engaging and masterful biography of him appeared in 1993. Jagdish Mehra's dense, authoritative scientific biography came out in 1996. Since then there has been a kind of "Feynman industry" in the form of tapes, books, transcripts, interviews and YouTube video clips. While this has kept Feynman alive, it has also turned him into a kind of larger-than-life legend who is more famous in the public mind for his pranks and other exploits than for his science. Most laymen will tell you that Feynman was a brilliant scientist but would be hard-pressed to tell you what he was famous for. It's time that we were again reminded of what most contributed to Richard Feynman's greatness- his science. Lawrence Krauss's biography fulfills this role. You could think of Gleick's biography as a kind of Renaissance painting, an elaborate piece of work where he gets everything accurate down to the eyebrows of the men, women and Gods. Krauss's biography is more like the evocative impressionistic art of the French masters, more of a lucid sketch that brings out the essence of Feynman the scientist.

The biography is essentially aimed at explaining Feynman's scientific contributions, their relevance, importance and uniqueness. Thus Krauss wisely avoids pondering over oft-repeated details about Feynman's personal life. He compresses descriptions of Feynman's childhood, the tragic story of his first wife's death and their extremely touching relationship and his time at Los Alamos into brief paragraphs; if we want to learn more we can look up Gleick or Feynman's own memoirs. What concerns Krauss more than anything else is what made Feynman such a great scientist. And he delivers the goods by diving into the science right away and by explaining what made Feynman so different. Perhaps Feynman's most unique and towering ability was his compulsive need to do things from scratch, work out everything from first principles, understand it inside out, backwards and forwards and from as many different angles as possible. Krauss does a great job in bringing out this almost obsessive tendency to divine the truth from the source. It manifested itself at a very early age when Richard was cranking out original solutions to algebra and arithmetic problems in school. And it was paramount in his Nobel Prize winning work.

Krauss succinctly explains how this intense drive to look at things in new ways allowed Feynman to do novel work during his PhD with John Wheeler at Princeton in which he formulated theories that described antiparticles as particles traveling backwards in time. Later Feynman also applied the same approach in using a novel method based on the principle of least action to explain the dizzying mysteries of quantum electrodynamics. Krauss does an admirable job in explaining the physics behind these contributions in layman's terms. Feynman's "sum over histories" prescription involved taking into consideration all of the infinite paths that a particle can take when getting from the beginning to the end point. This was a bizarre and totally new way of looking at things, but then quantum mechanics is nothing if not bizarre. As Krauss describes, the moment of revelation for Feynman came in a meeting where, using his techniques and intellectual prowess, he could finish in a few hours a complicated calculation for mesons that had taken another researcher several months. Krauss also narrates how Feynman brought the same freewheeling, maverick approach to thinking about superfluidity, beta decay, the strong nuclear force, gravity and computing and the book contains the most complete popular scientific treatments of Feynman's thoughts about these important problems that I have seen. The approach did not always work (as it did not in case of superconductivity) but it encouraged other physicists to think in new ways. In fact as Krauss lucidly narrates, Feynman's great influence on physics was not just through the direct impact of his ideas but also through the impact of his unconventional thinking which inspired students and other scientists to think outside the box.

As scientifically brilliant as Feynman was, Krauss also does not gloss over his professional and personal flaws and this biography is not a hagiography. Professionally, Feynman's independent spirit meant that he often would not read the literature and would stay away from mainstream interests which his colleagues were pursuing; while this greatly helped him, on more than one occasion it led to him being scooped. At the same time Feynman also did not care about priority and was generous in sharing credit. As for mentoring, while Feynman was a legendary teacher by way of example, unlike his own advisor John Wheeler he left few bonafide graduate students because of his compulsive tendency to solve problems himself. On a personal basis, probably the most shocking description concerns Feynman's womanizing. It's hard to say how much of it is true, but Krauss describes Feynman's affairs with colleagues' wives, his elaborate methods to seduce women in bars and the personal and emotional entanglements his womanizing caused. At least one fact is jarring; apparently when he was a young professor at Cornell, the boyish-looking Feynman used to pretend to be a graduate student so he could date undergraduates. This kind of behavior would almost certainly lead to strict disciplinary action in a modern university, if not something more drastic. In his early days Feynman was also known for not suffering fools gladly, although he mellowed as he grew older. Later on Krauss details Feynman's more publicly known activities, including his bongo playing, nude painting and his famous demonstration of the failure of the O-rings in the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Feynman's absolute insistence on honesty and truth in science and on reporting the negative results along with the positive ones also comes across, and should be a model for modern scientists. The biography does a good job of demonstrating that in science, true success needs fearlessness, determination and an unwavering belief in your ideas.

Ultimately, it's not Feynman's bongos, nude art and relentless clowning that make him a great man. However, since his death, he has often been perceived that way by the public largely due to the industry that has grown up around him. But Richard Feynman was defined first and foremost by his science and his striking intellectual originality that allowed him to look at the physical world in wholly unanticipated new ways. Krauss's biography performs a timely and valuable service in reminding us why, when we talk about Feynman, we should first talk about his physics.

This book is truly unique, and a must-read for anyone with an interest in Richard Feynman, math, physics, and I can't think what-all more.

The story follows Feynman through his life and activities as exemplified by his passion for and work in physics and math (with a few excursions into his other interests). I have a whole book cupboard full of books by, about, and inspired by my readings of Feynman, and nothing among them anything like this book. Dr. Krauss is a great storyteller, slipping from topic to topic in a way that makes ir really hard to put the book or audiobook down, and for those considering the Audible book along with the Kindle, go for it! Krauss narrates it himself and makes the math and physics feel easy.

The author, a theoretical phyicist and cosmologist himself, quotes from works not known to and possibly not available to (for free, anyway) the general public, and from Feynman's notes on his own notes and in others' works found among Feynman's papers. (Short version: the research is comprehensive.)

With the disclaimer that Richard Feynman is my all-time favorite physicist, I thought this was a great book. Lawrence Krauss can get goofy with his writing sometime - like in A Universe From Nothing, for instance - but here, he expressed no ideology other than that Feynman was a remarkable person and physicist. That's a claim that is very hard to argue with. I've read the other biographies, but I get the most insight into how Feynman approached problems from this treatment of his life and work. Krauss digs up some of the best accounts of Feynman from people who worked with him or were inspired by him. Being a physicist himself, Krauss went back to Feynman's original publications and the publications of those who built their work on his and even if he had not written this book, I'm certain that he gained a remarkable perspective on how his own work was influenced by Feynman. Now, if you want to read about the adventures that Feynman had - and they are awesome adventures - I would suggest reading Surely, You're Joking Mr. Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think and Tuva or Bust. You won't regret it. However, if you want to get a sense of how physics was influenced by Feynman, read this book.

This new volume, very well written by one of the best popular authors on physics, fills a gap in the Feynman bookshelf. At one end is the best biography of Feynman, "Genius" by James Gleick, which includes much personal history. At the other, "QED", by Sylvan Schweber, which covers the entire sweep of the work by Feynman, Dyson, Schwinger, Tomonaga and others on quantum electrodynamics, the centerpiece of Feynman's legacy.

Krauss writes a mainly scientific biography, and manages to cover this work without mathematical detail, but with well-chosen technical illustrations, which give the flavor of the work. Gleick provides much more on the personal life, and if you have the background, Schweber will fill in the details of QED. (If you want more background on Feynman diagrams, beyond the very good introduction in this book, I recommend "Drawing Theories Apart" by David Kaiser.)

Of course one must also read Feynman's own popular writings, both his own and those co-authored, and at the undergraduate level I wish I had his "Lectures on Physics" when I was a student in the early 1950's.

The new Krauss book definitely deserves 5 stars.

Krauss has made a labour of love of this insightful exposition of the scientific contributions of Richard Feynman. Given the existing biographical and scientific work on Feynman, Krauss has done a great job of complementing the work of others, distilling details accounted in Gleick's thorough biography while also presenting some of the science from Schweber's technical history of quantum electrodynamics. While enjoying the privilege of access to Feynman's original papers, Krauss has not included the `Notes' used effectively by some authors of science history. This may have been a recognition of the excellent notes provided by the above authors and acknowledged by Krauss, but it means the reader will need to read the complementary biographies as well (which is not a bad thing) to get the full picture on Feynman's work. There are some one-off topics that Krauss treats where a research trail would have been helpful.

The first gem that Krauss recounts is Feynman's recognition that "the fundamental laws of physics ... can appear in so many different forms that are not apparently identical at first", going on to note that theories may be scientifically indistinguishable but not psychologically identical. This theme is drawn out wonderfully, describing Feynman's youthful encounter with the principle of least action and its interpretation by Lagrange, then showing how Feynman used the Lagrangian to realise Dirac's prediction and reformulate quantum physics with the sum-over-paths method. This is one of many sub-stories that Krauss explores insightfully.

A slight criticism is that the broad-ranging examination of Feynman's ideas becomes a bit of a ramble and care needs to be taken following detail. For example, an excellent discussion of quantum computing is flawed by a lack of distinction between integers and composite numbers when explaining Shor's algorithm. In perspective, however, this is small beer because Krauss's easy and frank, yet highly expert, writing generally enables exceptional and candid insights into science and its practitioners.

This is the second Krauss book I have read lately and I am moved by his ability to explain scientific theory in a way that the reader can comprehend. If you don't get a concept at first, which can be difficult when authors are trying to spare you from the associated but important mathematics, you can reread Krauss and it will usually fall into place.

Great book By Lawrence Krauss about Richard Feynman and his great discoveries and his life in general. Great illustrations are also in this book which well help the lay reader even follow it better and understand and like physics even more. The story follows Richard through his life and his great discoveries and his his travels through out the world. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to grasp some knowledge about the history of physics and the people who helped us break through with new and better technology. To add to this review I was also fortunate enough to see Lawrence Krauss give a talk on the book at the American Atheist Convention in Des Moines Iowa in April. His talk even made the biography on Richard Feynman even more interesting and almost like you got to know him in person. What a wonderful man Feynman was! And of course the same goes to Lawrence Krauss for his fun and wonderful talk and his great personality!

Feynman was a fascinating fellow, so I was very interested to dig-deeper into his life. I felt a biography written by an accomplished physicist was an ideal choice, as the author could hold my hand in leading me through the depths of quantum physics. This is why I chose this biography of Feynman.

How did my hunch turn out? Okay. After finishing the book, I felt I knew Richard Feynman and his personality fairly well. Mr. Krauss's writing is straight-forward and approachable. The author makes significant effort to explain to the novice what the science was and why it mattered. In this regard, Mr. Krauss did okay, but not fabulously. I was an applied physics major, so I was familiar with a lot of the technical stuff to begin with. The problem I have with Mr Krauss's scientific explications was that if I did not know a good deal, I would have been lost at times. He went into the science too deeply for a novice to follow.

My biggest problem with the book can be summed-up in one word: EDITING. Were Mr. Krauss to have invested in a journeyman editor, the final produce would have been much better. He penned way too many uber-long sentences. Also, Mr. Krauss employed far too many pronouns in place of proper names. Finally, a quality editor would have corrected the author's tendency to whip-saw through Feynman's life. Sequentially we go back and forth, youth to Nobel Prize, marriage to widowhood, extensively. A little too Slautherhouse Five for a work of non-fiction.

At the end of the day, I do now know enough about Feynman to not need to read another biography, so Mr Krauss did an adequate enough job. Would I recommend you read this particular book to learn about Feynman? I cannot say. I guess I would leave it at look around a bit to see if there is a clearly superior version, and, failing finding one, this book will do.

I bought this book for my husband, having heard a review of it on CBC radio. He throughly enjoyed it - and it inspired him to do some artwork re stones being thrown into the water with ever expanding circles. It, the book, has made a deep impression.

An inspiration to every young Physicist and to all Mad People who are devoted to scientific inventions. Every Science and Engineering Student must read at least once in their college time.

Interesting because it does not hide any aspect of Feynmam. A great man often, a casual man always. Well written and easy to read.

Richard Feynman foi um dos mais extraordinários cientistas de todos os tempos e atuou em diversos campos da ciência, como a física e a nanotecnologia, desde os anos de 1920 até sua morte em 1988; foi, também um 'personagem' muito de interessante. Muitas são as histórias de irreverência e humor de uma pessoa tão 'comum' que guardava dentro de si o poderoso intelecto do gênio incomum que ele foi ("No Ordinary Genius" como no título do livro de Christopher Sykes). Conhecimento e diversão combinados neste excelente livro.

Richard Feynman ist wohl der Held einer ganzen Generation von Physikern, seine einzigartige Methode der Pfadintegrale ermöglichte es ihm die Probleme der Quanten Elektrodynamik in den Griff zu bekommen; sie wurde seitdem zu einem Standard Werkzeug der Teilchen Physiker, und heute wird man keinen Band Physical Reviews aufschlagen können, ohne darin Feynman Graphen zu finden. Aber bedeutende Erkenntnisse auf den Gebiet der Physik gab es und gibt es seither viele - trotzdem ereichte kein anderer Physiker, von Einstein abgesehen, bei einem größeren Publikum, auch außerhalb der Wissenschaftler Gemeinde, eine solche Popularität zu erreichen. Das liegt zu einem guten Teil sicher an seiner Originalität, wie kaum jemand andres 'verinnerlichte' er das Wesen von physikalischen Problemen, er liebte es, nicht auf bestehende Erkenntnisse aufzubauen, sondern sich den Phänomen - ganz für sich selbst - aus ersten Prinzipien zu nähern, dabei hatte er großes Geschick, die Dinge aus immer neuen Blickwinkeln zu untersuchen, bis er einen besonderen Fall vollständig verstanden hatte, dann konnte er das Problem oft mit einigen eleganten Argumenten angehen.

Als Feynman nach der Beendigung des Manhattan Projects seine erste Professur an der Cornell Universität (Ithaca) innehatte, fühlte er sich plötzlich ausgebrannt, glaube nichts wichtiges mehr leisten zu können, und die in ihn gesetzten Erwartungen zu enttäuschen; Hans Bethe nahm in zur Seite und erklärte ihm, er können das getrost der Universitäts- Administration überlassen, diese habe ihn als außergewöhnlich begabten Physiker engagiert und sie trage deshalb auch das Erfolgsrisiko; Feynman beschloss, sich darum nicht mehr zu scheren, und er machte sich daran die Quantenmechanik aus seiner Sicht neu zu formulieren - einfach aus dem Vergnügen heraus, Dinge herauszufinden..

Es ist somit nicht verwunderlich, das es mittlerweile eine Unzahl von Biographien über Feynman gibt, ganz abgesehen von Feynmans eigenen autobiographischen Schriften und populär wissenschaftlichen Werken; es existieren sogar Video Aufzeichnung von seinen legendären Feynman Lectures; sein Vergnügen am Erklären wurde in etlichen BBC Horizon Beiträgen verewigt, aus dieser Zusammenarbeit entstand auch Christopher Sykes filmische Hommage "No Ordinary Genius".

Dem gegenüber ist das vorliegenden Buch von Lawrence Krauss Feynmans Leben als Wissenschaftler gewidmet. Wiewohl Feynman mit Leichtigkeit sämtliche Wissenschaftler Klischees durchbrach - er liebte Bongo Spielen und topless Bars, nahm Zeichenunterricht bei einem befreundeten Künstler, hatte in Pasadena sogar mit einer kleinen Ausstellung Erfolg, sein eigentlicher Lebensmittelpunkt war und blieb aber die Physik; bis zu seinem Lebensende, nach mehreren schweren Operationen, dachte er fast unaufhörlich über Physik nach, neben tausenden Seiten mit Notizen, stapelten sich in seinem Haus Servietten, Briefumschläge und ähnliche Schnipsel, alle bedeckt mit seinen Formeln. Einfühlsam schildert der Autor Feynmans Werdegang, seine ersten Erfolge, den großen Durchbruch mit der QED, geehrt mit dem Nobelpreis, aber auch Feynman späteren Arbeiten zur Suprafluidität, schwachen und starken Wechselwirkung, seine originellen Ideen zur Nano Technologie und zu Quanten Computing. Einsichtsvoll zeigt er den roten Faden auf – den besonderen Feynman Style, der sich durch all diese Arbeiten zieht.

Das Buch erschien in der Reihe 'Great Discoveries', hier seht die Würdigung Feynmans Seiten an Seite mit den Verdiensten von Marie Curie, Alan Turing, Kurt Gödel, Kopernikus, Galileo Galilei und anderen.