US Postage Stamps Feature Scientists

The US Postal Service is honoring four American scientists with stamps, to be issued on 4 May. Physicists Richard Feynman and Josiah Willard Gibbs, mathematician John von Neumann (who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics), and geneticist Barbara McClintock share the panel of first-class stamps.

Each stamp depicts a scientist with graphics relevant to his or her work, which is described on the stamp’s sticky side. The stamps also bear hidden symbols to protect against counterfeiting; look for a physical constant in miniature on the Feynman stamp, for example. The panel is the first in what may become a philatelic series of scientists.

Ralph Leighton, who played drums with Feynman and helped write several of his popular books, had lobbied for a Feynman stamp for a decade. To celebrate, Leighton—the son of Robert B. Leighton, a coauthor of the ubiquitous Feynman Lectures on Physics—has organized a party at the post office in Far Rockaway, the New York City neighborhood where Feynman grew up. A few blocks away, the street where Feynman lived will be renamed in his honor. Both events will take place on 11 May, Feynman’s birthday. All are invited (see http://www.nyas.org/snc/calendar.asp ).