Caltech Library News

A Feynman Fiftieth

Feynman in 1959 Photo ID 1.10-48

"What I want to talk about is the problem of manipulating and controlling things on a small scale." So Richard Feynman stated the topic of his talk at the American Physical Society meeting on the Caltech campus, December 29, 1959: "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." Fifty years later, much has been written about Feynman's role in launching the nanotechnology revolution. The historic importance of the talk is undisputed, and we celebrate its half-century mark in the Caltech Archives with some photos and documents related to the original occasion. See both our photogallery and in the news pages. The Archives is home to the Richard Feynman Papers. Posted 12-1-2009