The book has many stories which are lighthearted in tone, such as his fascination with
safe-cracking, studying various languages, participating with groups of people who share different interests (such as biology or philosophy), and ventures into art and
samba music. Other stories cover more serious material, including his work on the
Manhattan Project (during which his first wife, Arline, died of
tuberculosis) and his critique of the science
education system in Brazil. The section "Monster Minds" describes his slightly nervous presentation of his graduate work on the
Wheeler–Feynman absorber theory in front of
Albert Einstein,
Wolfgang Pauli,
Henry Norris Russell,
John von Neumann, and other major scientists of the time. The anecdotes were edited from
taped conversations that Feynman had with his close friend and drumming partner
Ralph Leighton. Its surprise success led to a sequel,
What Do You Care What Other People Think?, also taken from Leighton's taped conversations. ''Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!'' became a national bestseller. The book's title is taken from a comment made by a woman at
Princeton University after Feynman asked for both cream and lemon in his tea, a combination that would just curdle the cream.
Cargo Cult Science The final chapter, "Cargo Cult Science", was adapted from Feynman's 1974 commencement address at the California Institute of Technology, in which he cautioned graduates not to minimize the weaknesses of their research in the pursuit of a preferred conclusion. He drew an analogy to the
cargo cult phenomenon in the South Pacific Ocean in which, as he understood it, islanders built a mock airstrip to cause airplanes loaded with imported goods to land. The cargo cult islanders carved headphones from wood and wore them while sitting in handmade lashed-up control towers. They waved landing signals to conjure the cargo planes out of the sky. Similarly, he argued, adopting the appearances of scientific investigation without a self-critical attitude will fail to produce reliable results. Feynman used the term "cargo cult" to describe situations where people focus on superficial aspects of a process without understanding the underlying principles. ==Reception==