- Gamow, George. One, Two,
Three…Infinity. Mineola, NY:
Dover, [1947] 1961. rev. ed. ISBN 0-486-25664-2.
- This book, which first I read at around age twelve,
rekindled my native interest in mathematics and science which had,
by then, been almost entirely extinguished by six years of that
intellectual torture called “classroom instruction”. Gamow was an
eminent physicist: among other things, he advocated the big bang
theory decades before it became fashionable, originated the concept
of big bang nucleosynthesis, predicted the cosmic microwave background
radiation 16 years before it was discovered, proposed the liquid drop
model of the atomic nucleus, worked extensively in the astrophysics
of energy production in stars, and even designed a nuclear bomb
(“Greenhouse George”),
which initiated the first deuterium-tritium fusion reaction here
on Earth. But he was also one of most talented popularisers
of science in the twentieth century, with a total of 18 popular
science books published between 1939 and 1967, including the Mr Tompkins series, timeless
classics which inspired many of the science visualisation projects
at this site, in particular C-ship. A talented
cartoonist as well, 128 of his delightful pen and ink drawings grace
this volume. For a work published in 1947 with relatively minor
revisions in the 1961 edition, this book has withstood the test of time
remarkably well—Gamow was both wise and lucky in his choice of topics.
Certainly, nobody should consider this book a survey of present-day
science, but for folks well-grounded in contemporary orthodoxy, it's
a delightful period piece providing a glimpse of the scientific world
view of almost a half-century ago as explained by a master of the art.
This Dover paperback is an unabridged reprint of the 1961 revised
edition.
September 2004 