The New World of Mr Tompkins: George Gamow's Classic Mr Tompkins in Paperback - Softcover

Gamow, Russell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521639921 ISBN 13: 9780521639927

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Mr Tompkins is back! The mild-mannered bank clerk with the short attention span and vivid imagination has inspired, charmed and informed young and old alike since the publication of the hugely successful Mr Tompkins in Paperback (by George Gamow) in 1965. In this 1999 book, he returns in a new set of adventures exploring the extreme edges of the universe - the smallest, the largest, the fastest, the farthest. Through his experiences and his dreams, you are there at Mr Tompkins' shoulder watching and taking part in the merry dance of cosmic mysteries: Einstein's relativity, bizarre effects near light-speed, the birth and death of the universe, black holes, quarks, space warps and antimatter, the fuzzy world of the quantum, and that ultimate cosmic mystery of all ... love. This text is revised, updated and expanded by best-selling popular-science author Russell Stannard (who wrote the much-acclaimed Uncle Albert series of books for children).

About this title

Review:

'The best just got better. Two of the most influential popular science books ever were Mr Tompkins in Wonderland (1940) and Mr Tompkins Explores the Atom (1945) ... They were brought together in one volume, slightly updated, and reprinted in 1965 as Mr Tompkins in Paperback ... Russell Stannard, the very best writer of science books for young readers [has updated Mr Tompkins] with immense care and subtlety, rearranging the text, adding new material and changing a word or two where necessary ... I had two fears - that my remembered delight in the original would be destroyed by looking at it through more mature eyes, and that Stannard might spoil the book. Both were unfounded. There is a certain period charm about the original, but Stannard has improved on both the physics and the narrative ... It is absolutely the best place to get a feel for the most important scientific ideas of the twentieth century.' John Gribbin, The Independent

'... as I kept reading, I began to realize that Stannard had actually done a remarkable job of preserving the mood and feeling of the original ... The book still has a charming naiveté, and although the illustrations have been changed, they too still have that same, almost Victorian quality. So, to my surprise, I have to pronounce the translation a success. If newcomers who have not seen the original read the book, they will find a charming, whimsical introduction to modern physics ... Are there other good books that cover the same material? Lots of them! Is there another book that does it so pleasantly, giving the reader a direct, sort of inside view of otherwise very remote phenomena, all within the context of a running short novel? I doubt it! The New World ... is a unique book.' Physics Today

'... here is a version that Stannard believes Gamow himself might have written, had he been at work today. Physics took a giant leap at the junction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ... the book deals very well with the more recent developments and Mr Tompkins' visit to a particle accelerator is well described. Stannard has also updated the language, where appropriate. This has been a successful exercise that Gamow ... would have liked. I can recommend the book both for general readers, and for specialists who may like to check how their subject is being presented to Mr Tompkins today.' Physics World

'A new version of the Mr Tompkins' adventures, revised and updated by Russell Stannard, brings the experiences into modern day. A welcome addition to the original.' Astronomy Now

'For more than five decades the fictional Mr Tompkins has helped familiarize people with many esoteric concepts of physics. Russell Stannard ... has brought George Gamow's Mr Tompkins into atomic physics and cosmology but has kept the British flair.' Sky and Telescope

'For more than five decades the fictional Mr Tompkins has helped familiarize people with many esoteric concepts of physics. Russell Stannard ... has brought George Gamow's Mr Tompkins in atomic physics and cosmology but has kept the British flair.' Sky and Telescope

'Russell Stannard is a brilliant communicator.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

From reviews of Mr Tompkins in Paperback: 'Enthusiastically recommended to both scientific and general readers.' The Guardian

'Not only entertaining; the ordinary reader can learn from it a great deal about sub-atomic particles - electrons, neutrons and the rest - and the strange rules which govern their behaviour.' The Observer

'Will vastly fascinate the whimsical, and is also entirely scientific.' Scientific American

Book Description:

An inspirational introduction to the physics of the twenty-first century, Mr Tompkins explores the extreme edges of the universe to understand Einstein's relativity, the birth of the universe and more. In this 1999 edition, Russell Stannard (the Uncle Albert Trilogy) has revised, updated and expanded George Gamow's book Mr Tompkins in Paperback (1965).

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0521639921
• ISBN 13: 9780521639927
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 272