Charles Mann

I'm John Preskill.

I'm a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology.

I am the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics.

I grew up in the Chicago area.

My interest in science, like for a lot of people in my generation, I was a kid in the early 60s, and I was fascinated by the space program.

But actually, Feynman had an influence on me when I was very young.

There was a book fair at my elementary school, and I was drawn to a large volume with the title The World of Science.

And I just ate this book up.

It had a chapter on each of various fields of science, and they were all interesting.

There was neuroscience, and there was math, and there was astrophysics.

But the thing I found most fascinating was the chapter on theoretical physics.

And it started with the story of a small boy who has a red wagon with a ball in it.

And he notices that when he pulls the wagon forward, the ball rolls to the back.

And when he stops pulling it, the ball rolls forward.

My father had taught me to notice things, and one day when I was playing with what we call an express wagon, which is a little wagon which has a railing around it for children to play with that they can pull around, it had a ball in it.

I remember this.

It had a ball in it.

And I pulled the wagon and I noticed something about the way the ball moved.

So I went to my father and I said, say, Pop, I noticed something.

When I pull the wagon, the ball rolls to the back of the wagon.