dickens
mary.krimmel@SDCS.ORG
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 09:32:20 -0700
January 22, 1997
Dear Mr. Dickens,
Reading the biography "Genius: the life and science of Richard Feynman" by
James Gleick, I recently learned that in 1985 a Stanford University graduate
student, Thomas H. Newman, spent a month shrinking the first page of "A Tale of
Two Cities" 25,000 times in each direction onto silicon with such marvelous
technique that it was still microscope-readable (pp 355-6).
Did you know this? Do you know any more about his choice of your famous opening
for this feat? Its very fame could have been his reason, of course, or perhaps
he just looked on his bookshelves and saw that the page size and print clarity
were appropriate for his project (I hope and believe not that alone, surely.) I
like to think that he had a more compelling reason, perhaps personal, and that
I could learn it from him or someone interested who has asked him. I have your
address, so you are my first addressee. Also I want to be sure you know about
this, in case you hadn't already heard it.
Fond as I am of your work, if this had been my project a page from Newton or
Einstein would have struck me as appropriate, or something more recent
concerning transistors or silicon chips, or even the first chapter of Genesis.
With so many new discoveries at hand I hardly see how a physicist could think
1985 a bad time, let alone the worst.
Please let me know your thoughts about this. I intend to pursue my question.
You see how widespread is your fame; now even the teeniest literate organism
can read Dickens without having to travel endless microbe-miles to cover one
page!
Mary Krimmel
mary.krimmel@sdcs.org