George Gamow

Carlsberg Beer, Horseshoes, Luck, And Niels Bohr

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Niels Bohr was one of the giants of twentieth-century physics. He and Einstein respected each other very much, but their work habits were just about opposite. Einstein preferred to work with just a single assistant, if at all, whereas Bohr worked very hard to secure funding for an institute of theoretical physics in Denmark. Bohr … Read more

Black Earth Into Yellow Crocus

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Perhaps my favourite joke of all time is actually an anecdote that I read in the wonderful book Thirty Years that Shook Physics, by George Gamow. The book is available in an inexpensive Dover edition, and would make a fine complement to a course textbook in modern physics, which amounts to introductory quantum mechanics. Gamow … Read more