Giant Freakin Robot

Richard Feynman is a total badass, though maybe not in the way we traditionally use that term. We’re not talking about a grim, grizzled action hero in the Snake Plissken or Ellen Ripley mold. There’s no gun-slinging or alien fighting. No, this time we’re talking about more of a mad scientist, crazy genius kind of badass. If you’re in the mood for some light reading—and by light, I mean theoretical particle physics, fluid dynamics, quantum mechanics, and more—you can now access his legendary Feynman Lectures on Physics online for free. And what better way to celebrate Labor Day Weekend than by diving into some quantum electrodynamics?

These celebrated lectures, which have previously been collected in various volumes and editions, are now online, again for free, and available to anyone with an internet connection thanks to the folks a the California Institute of Technology, where Feynman taught and did some of his most notable work. (Check them out HERE.) All three volumes are up for your perusal. There’s Volume I: Mainly Mechanics, Radiation and Heat, Volume II: Mainly Electromagnetism and Matter, and Volume III: Quantum Mechanics. Each one is broken down into chapters and subchapters galore. Like I said, light reading.

I remember January 28, 1986. I was seven years old. I, like so many other excited students, gathered in the cafeteria of my school just before lunch to watch the Challenger take off. I didn’t know a whole lot about space back then, except that it was far away, huge, and mysterious, and that those qualities also made it pretty cool. I had absorbed by then, though, that going into space was Important. It was one of those adventures that has and hopefully will continue to define humankind. I also knew that on board that ship was a teacher who also happened to be a woman. This brought the mission much closer to home for me, as it did for so many people. I remember watching the liftoff and clapping along with everyone else, even the folks in NASA’s control room.

Gravity‘s recent box office success proves that people are interested in space-set disasters, probably because it’s been quite a few years since such a tragedy struck in real life. Do you remember where you were on January 28, 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger met its disastrous end over the Atlantic Ocean? The Challenger Disaster, Science Channel’s first foray into scripted programming, will allow viewers to experience a dramatized version of the events when it airs on November 16th. In an effort to get the film out to an even wider audience, Discovery Channel will be simulcasting the film, which was co-produced by the BBC, at 9 p.m. Given Discovery still occasionally airs things that are about science and space, it’s a good move for everyone involved.

This year, Science Channel has averaged around 304,000 viewers, with 117,000 in key demographics, while Discovery Channel is getting around 1.3 million viewers, with 660,000 in the 18-49 set. Surely, the increase in viewers still equals to numbers much smaller than many hit dramas on other cable stations, but it’s a big one percentage-wise, and this film should definitely get more viewers than the averages. I’m going to watch it on Science Channel because I like an underdog.