Paul Halpern
Community College of Philadelphia
In 1939, Richard Feynman, a brilliant graduate of MIT, arrived in John Wheeler's Princeton office to report for duty as his teaching assistant. A lifelong friendship and enormously productive collaboration was born, despite sharp differences in personality. The soft-spoken Wheeler, though conservative in appearance, was a raging nonconformist full of wild ideas about the universe. The boisterous Feynman was a cautious physicist who believed only what could be tested. Yet they were complementary spirits. Physicist Paul Halpern will discuss the little-known story of their friendship, which is the subject of his new book The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality (Basic Books). Together, Feynman and Wheeler rethought the nature of time and reality that laid vital groundwork for late-twentieth-century breakthroughs in particle physics. Their friendship and collaboration enabled Feynman to show how quantum reality is a combination of alternative, contradictory possibilities, and inspired Wheeler to develop his landmark concept of wormholes, portals to the future and past.
Dr. David Cattell, Chairman of the Physics Department of Community College of Philadelphia hosts meetings of PhACT at 2:00 PM on the third Saturday of most months at Community College of Philadelphia. Parking is easily available and costs $4.00 for all day. Enter the college parking garage on 17th Street which is one way south bound. It opens at 1:00 PM and closes at 6:00 PM. This meeting site is handicap accessible. PhACT Meetings are Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
Lectures are generally at Community College of Philadelphia in Lecture Room C2-28 in the Center for Business and Industry at the corner of 18th and Callowhill Streets, at 2:00 PM, unless otherwise noted. Please try to arrive a few minutes early as the College now requires that meeting attendees sign in for security reasons. ID must be shown.