Beautiful essay. Thanks for posting. An obligatory favorite passage: "You'll never learn experimental physics by sitting at a desk," he abruptly said. "Get ov

Beautiful essay. Thanks for posting. An obligatory favorite passage: "You'll never learn experimental physics by sitting at a desk," he abruptly said. "Get over to Building 46, where the real physics is being done!" I was embarrassed. "But I don't understand anything yet. I don't know how to help. I'd just be in the way," I protested. I remember his answer very clearly "That doesn't matter," he said. "just go over there and hang around. Do anything anybody asks you to do. Sooner or later someone will see that you're there, and they'll ask you to hold a screwdriver. Get your hands dirty Pretty soon you'll know how things are constructed. Once they have seen that you're around a lot, they may ask you to help test the apparatus. Before long you'll know how everything works. You can read memos anytime, in the evenings, at home, but you can only learn experimental physics by being in the laboratory, by doing it."