For some, it was that special connection with a grandparent or a football coach, a boss, or a cleric. For a young physicist struggling to find his place in the world, the relationship that would most profoundly influence his life was with his mentor, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Shares Feynman's provocative answers to such questions as "What is the nature of creativity?"--And "How does a scientist think?" At once a moving portrait of a friendship and an affecting account of Feynman's final, creative years, celebrates the inspiring legacy of one of the greatest thinkers of our time. Annotation. Academic scientist turned Hollywood screen writer, Mlodinow recounts his first year on the faculty at California Technical Institute, beginning in winter 1981, and his interactions there with renowned physicist Richard Feynman during his last years.