Some of the brightest minds in science have passed through the halls of
the California Institute of Technology. In the early 1980s, Leonard
Mlodinow joined their ranks to begin a postdoctoral fellowship. Afraid
he was not smart enough to be there, despite his groundbreaking Ph.D.
thesis, he took his insecurities to Richard Feynman, Caltech's
intimidating resident genius and iconoclast. So began a pivotal year in
a young man's life. Though a series of fascinating exchanges, Mlodinow
and Feynman delve into the nature of science, creativity, love
mathematics, happiness, God, art, pleasures and ambition, producing a
moving portrait of a friendship and an affecting account of Feynman's
final creative years.