Zachary Tanana’s Reviews > Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science > Status Update

By the 1950's Feynmans method for dealing with the infinities in QED (Feynman Diagrams) takes over the field. He briefly spends time in condensed matter physics before coming back to particle theory, working with Gell-Mann to help explain the weak interaction. During all this he gets married and divorced. Then married to his final wife. By the mid 1960s he learns he's won the Nobel Prize for his work in QED.

Richard at 24 and just finishing his PhD gets recruited to join the Manhattan Project by Oppenheimer to develop the first atomic bomb. With him leading the theoretical division they make great progress, which leads to the Trinity test, a functional atomic weapon to be used to defeat Japan. During this time his wife dies of tuberculosis.

Richard grows up, completes undergrad at MIT and gets married. Does graduate work at Princeton, working on the intersection between electromagnetism and quantum mechanics (quantum electrodynamics), tries to express particle paths in terms of the path of least action (lagrangian). Potential paths (positive and negative) cancel out to produce the classical world. Also gets married to Arlene who has a terminal illness.