The beat of a different drum

Name: The beat of a different drum
ISBN: 9780198518877

by Jagdish Mehra · first published 1994

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Biography & Memoir

This definitive book deals with the life and scientific work of arguably the greatest American-born theoretical physicist of the twentieth century. He was a great teacher, a born showman, bongo drummer, buffoon, and iconoclast; a scientific magician capable of transcendental leaps of the imagination. During his career he was drawn into research on the atomic bomb before working out his path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics and quantum electro-dynamics. Subsequently he developed the diagrammatic technique, as a result of which Feynman diagrams became ubiquitous in quantum field theory

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zoolily · Apr 5, 2021 · Recommends

It might be more interesting to read a different Feynman biography. I read Genius first, then Mehra's The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, which I liked better.
on “When Feynman met Dirac (2020)” ↗
billswift · Oct 2, 2011 · Recommends

…subjects, you will never become really good at any one. Richard Feynman's "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" and Jagdish Mehra's biography of Feynman, The Beat of a Different Drum all show the combination of focus on physics and his ability to easily pick up the side interests, safecracking, drawing, drumming, Mayan arithmetic, that exemplifies real genius.
on “Meet the New Super People” ↗
matthewmcg · Oct 22, 2014 · Recommends

Jagdish Mehra's The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman is even more technical than Krauss and is worth checking out if you really want to understand his scientific contributions.
on “Paul Dirac: The Quiet Genius Died 30 Years Ago” ↗
assemblyman · Feb 11, 2026 · Recommends

…on lectures he wrote and gave but they were mostly "side projects" e.g. computation, lectures on gravitation, six easy pieces etc. To get a better sense of his work, I would highly recommend: - The Beat of a Different Drum by Jagdish Mehra - Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick - Selected Papers - https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/4270 (expensive and technical) - QED and the…
on “The Feynman Lectures on Physics (online edition)” ↗