Mr. Tompkins Gets Serious: The Essential George Gamow, The Masterpiece Science Edition - Hardcover

Gamow, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0131872915 ISBN 13: 9780131872912

Publisher: Pi Press, 2005

Synopsis

From what happens inside the atom to how things work on larger scales in the universe, readers can rely on George Gamow's authority and be delighted by his sheer joy of physics. Gamow's breadth of knowledge was astounding, he made major contributions to advances in both cosmology and molecular biology. His elucidation of radioactivity, the Big Bang theory, and even how the genetic code might be transcribed years before DNA was discovered makes him one of the 20th century's greatest scientists.

Gamow, the creator of the famous MR. TOMPKINS series, offers here his thoughts on how the atom works, the basic laws of chemistry, radioactivity, electromagnetism, the nature of light, and how scientists understand space, time, and motion. These writings were collected from his exhaustive 1958 volume on the physical sciences Matter, Earth and Sky,  now out of print and not available in any other collection. Lovers of the Feynman Lectures will recognize a similar kind of scientific brilliance made accessible in a way that only those with the highest understanding can provide.

About this title

About the Author

George Gamow was born in Ukraine in 1904 and defected to the United States from the former Soviet Union in the 1930s. He was a professor of physics at George Washington University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a leading researcher in nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The global impact of his popular scientific writings, books such as the Mr. Tompkins series and One, Two, Three Infinity, was recognized by the United Nations in 1956 when he was awarded the Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science. He died in 1968.

From the Back Cover

"Modern physics extends its horizons far beyond the everyday experience upon which all the commonsense ideas of classical physics were based. We are thus bound to find striking deviations from our conventional way of thinking and must be prepared to encounter facts that sound quite paradoxical to our ordinary common sense."

―George Gamow

"Gamow never talks down to the reader, nor does he sidestep difficult issues. Rather, his lucid writing, careful explanations, and vivid imagery make the most abstruse topics accessible."

―Robert Oerter

"My father delighted in telling people that his book, along with Lady Chatterley's Lover, and James Joyce's Ulysses, had been banned in Boston."

―R. Igor Gamow

Here are the classic writings by the theorist behind the Big Bang and the cracking of DNA―one of twentieth-century science's most brilliant minds and charismatic characters. From what happens inside the atom to how things work on larger scales in the universe, readers can rely on George Gamow's authority and be delighted by his sheer joy of physics.

Gamow's breadth of knowledge was astounding―he made major contributions to advances in both cosmology and molecular biology. His elucidation of radioactivity and the Big Bang theory, and his groundbreaking work on deciphering the genetic code make him one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists. He was also the creator of the highly popular Mr. Tompkins series of books. Here he offers his thoughts on how the atom works; radioactivity; electromagnetism; the nature of light; and how scientists understand space, time, and motion. These writings were collected from his exhaustive volume on the physical sciences Matter, Earth, and Sky and The Atom and Its Nucleus―neither of which are now available.

Lovers of the Feynman Lectures will recognize a similar kind of scientific brilliance made accessible in a way that only those with the highest understanding can provide. Great science deserves the eloquence and passion of George Gamow, and this volume has the added virtue of Robert Oerter's editorial skill, as well as a rare insight into Gamow the man in the Foreword by his son. This Masterpiece Science Edition delivers another outstanding work of science writing to a new generation of readers.

© Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pi Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0131872915
• ISBN 13: 9780131872912
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416