Albert Hibbs

Biography

In 1947, Hibbs and Roy Walford took time off, from graduate school and medical school respectively, to go to Reno and Las Vegas to beat the casinos at roulette. Studying biases in the roulette wheels, they made profits variously estimated between $6,500 and $42,000. According to Hibbs himself, during an episode of You Bet Your Life on which he was a contestant and won $500, he made "about $12,000" from his roulette exploits.

Hibbs earned his Ph.D. in 1955 under Richard Feynman, with a dissertation titled "The Growth of Water Waves Due to the Action of the Wind". He also transcribed and edited Feynman's lectures in quantum electrodynamics, and coauthored their book on path integrals and quantum mechanics. He called upon his mentor at least once to provide recommendations to NASA for his selection as a science astronaut in the Apollo program. In 1967, Hibbs was chosen to become an astronaut on the Apollo 25 moon mission, but the program was canceled before it would have been launched.

In 1962, Hibbs began hosting a Saturday morning educational program on NBC television entitled Exploring. It mostly, but not exclusively, covered scientific topics, featuring segments with the Ritts puppets, cinematic short subjects, animated versions of famous legends, and music. It ran for several years, but received poor ratings, and was constantly shifted around the schedule.

Hibbs enjoyed making kinetic sculpture as a hobby and was fascinated by self-actuated machines—a field where he once again collaborated in a well known idea-experiment of Feynman's. According to Feynman, it was Hibbs who originally suggested to him (circa 1959) the idea of a medical use for Feynman's theoretical micromachines (see nanotechnology). Hibbs suggested that certain repair machines might one day be reduced in size to the point that it would, in theory, be possible to (as Feynman put it) "swallow the doctor".

Hibbs died on February 24, 2003 at the age of 78 from complications following heart surgery.