A labor of love
On Monday night, MIT’s largest lecture hall filled with the hum of a capacity crowd, creaking with anticipation in their wooden chairs. People young and old jockeyed for seats; the unlucky were left to stand in the aisles. As more people filtered in, the hum morphed into a buzz — until a man with wild white hair, wearing a shirt the colors of sherbet, took the stage, commanding, “Take your seats, please.” Class had begun. Walter Lewin, MIT professor emeritus of physics, had returned to Building 26-100 — the hall where he has given more than 800 lectures — to deliver one last talk. The visit was pegged to the release of his new book, For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time — A Journey Through the Wonders of Physics (Free Press), written with Warren Goldstein. Many audience members held copies...