Richard P. Feynman made significant advances in the understanding of superfluidity, weak nuclear interactions, and quarks, and he shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965 for his contributions to the theory of quantum electrodynamics. In early 1986 Feynman served on the presidential commission that investigated the space shuttle Challenger incident, demonstrating to the nation that defective O-rings reacted too slowly to hot gases in cold temperatures, causing the shuttle to explode.

Richard Phillips Feynman was born in New York City on May 11, 1918, to Melville Arthur and Lucille Phillips Feynman. His father held a number of jobs, but he spent most of his years as a sales manager for a uniform manufacturer. Feynman had a younger sister, Joan, and a brother, Henry, who died in infancy. His youth was spent reading assorted mathematics books and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, as well as conducting experiments and fixing radios. As a student Feynman...