Everyone Loves Differently - Loving Science from a Safe Distance

I heard a story about Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize winning physicist. Or maybe I read it. I can’t remember, and I can’t track it down now, but I love the story a great deal, and I think that it’s an appropriate introduction to my blogging project this month:

When he was young, Richard Feynman wrote a physics paper that was torn apart by his professors. His wife tried to console him. She told him, “Everyone loves differently. You love physics, and so you wrote that paper. Your professors love physics, and they’re doing it by questioning your theories. Maybe they’re doing it very rigorously, but those are just the forms of your devotion.”

I used to love science by studying it. Now my love has changed forms. I like to think that I’m just as devoted, but in a get-your-partial-differential- equations-out-of-my-face kind of way. I love science by writing about scientists, it seems. This month, I’m going to look at art and science (among other things). I’m going to interview scientists in different fields, to find out about creativity in their work, and to find out what they read and why. I’m going to ask people about the science of reading, the science of literature itself. There’s an intersection between literature and science. My suspicion is that we all inspire each other. I’m going to see if I can track that down too.

I’m probably also going to write about other things as well. Definitely, I’m going to write about other things.

Full disclosure: I spend a lot of time with babies. I have a lot to say to grownups.

Even more full disclosure: I kind of plan to use this space as a diary. It might be a disaster. Come play!

The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.