Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory

by George Gamow

Book Overview

"Dr. Gamow, physicist and gifted writer, has sketched an intriguing portrait of the scientists and clashing ideas that made the quantum revolution." -- Christian Science Monitor
In 1900, German physicist Max Planck postulated that light, or radiant energy, can exist only in the form of discrete packages or quanta. This profound insight, along with Einstein's equally momentous theories of relativity, completely revolutionized man's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 048624895X
• ISBN13: 9780486248950
• Release Date: July 1985
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

What a great read!

I'd suggest this book to any high school chemistry or physics teacher. It is easy to read and hits all the highlights of the history of quantum mechanics. As a lover of science history, it was great to get a lot of first-hand accounts and stories about the people who developed this field. It was one of the best books I have read on the history of science. I highly recommend it.

A great book from the master!

A reprinted Dover edition of a lovely set of biographies of the physicists of the Golden Period, from the pen of George Gamow. The original 1966 edition has been out of print for a number of years. This 1985 edition is beautifully reproduced, and it includes fascinating pictures, sketches, and poems, done by Gamow himself. He was born in Odessa, in what was then Russia, --before the Soviet Union. The story of his escape to the West is straight out of a thriller. Only it is real! Later in the US, Gamow was referred to by a journalist,--- some time during the Cold War, as "the only scientist in America with a real sense of humor". With his lovely books, we have now all come to experience how Gamow can take the most technical stuff and make it simple. Fun too! The book:--Intellectual treats, whimsy, but deep. It contains penetrating and personal biographies of Niels Bohr, Paul Ehrenfest, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, and recollections from the conferences in the 1930ties in Copenhagen, Brussels, and in the Solvay Institute. Illustrated with lovely drawings by Gamow himself. A book with pictures and conversations! Much of it can be understood by a child, and other parts might require a little concentration. All of it is great fun. The author Gamow started in nuclear physics, during the Golden Age of Physics, worked with Niels Bohr, then later in the US, on the Manhattan Project during WWII, and after the war, he was professor in Boulder Colorado. He has a building on campus named after him! The books he wrote are pearls, and they have been equally popular with my parent's generation as with mine. Luckely some have been reprinted! Other Gamow titles: Biography of Physics, Atomic Energy [dedicated to the hope of lasting peace], Physics of the Strapless Evning Gown,...We are lucky that Dover has reprinted some of them. Gamow's list of scientific accomplishments includes a 1948 landmark paper on the origin of chemical elements, the Big Bang model, and later work with F. Crick on DNA and genetic coding.-- Do more Gamow editions, Dover!

The story of quantum theory:

The first three decades of the twentieth century saw history's most concentrated burst of human knowledge of nature. The world described by the greatest of scientists, Isaac Newton, changed quickly to a very strange and startling world described notably by Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, Fermi, and a few others. George Gamow was one of these individuals. His lucent knowledge of the important ideas of the quantum theories and of the men who developed these ideas, makes for very interesting reading.In his "Thirty Years that Shook Physics," Gamow the physicist is also found to be Gamow the artist -- his excellent drawings augment the narrative -- and Gamow the light hearted humorist. Because of the author's close friendships with Bohr and Pauli (and to a lesser extent, Dirac) the reader will meet not only the thoughts of these characters, but the characters themselves. It seems that quantum physicists like to have fun too. The book concludes with an illustrated text of a play composed and performed at the 1932 Copenhagen conference, although it can be followed it is something of an 'inside joke', if you will.The book was written in 1965 and Gamow, noting difficulties with quantum theory, expected to see a new and equally radical revolution in physical theories before the end of the century. Although quantum theory has been hugely successful in its application, a new theory is still anticipated. [M-theory?] This book is an excellent account of the emergence of quantum theory, presented in the words of one of its principals.

Thirty Years That Shook Physics - A Great Read!!

This book is a must-read for budding scientists and all science lovers. George Gamow does a good job weaving the history of modern physics into an interesting narrative. The author's photograhphs of the early scientific community are part of this book, including photos of Einstein, Curie, Heisenberg, as well as himself. This book is for those with a science background, but a non-scientist can certainly read it - no jargon. If you know any young (late junior high or high school age) boys or girls who are interested in physics and chemistry, this would make an excellent gift. I was given this book and read it cover to cover the first night I received it. I was transfixed!

"I've never bored a reader"

Actually this is the motto of a great Italian writer, Leonardo Sciascia. But, in the domain of science, no one better than Gamow lived to it. The great Russian-born physicist, educated by Bohr, reviews the birth of quantum mechanics and its first applications as an insider, with great panache and as much accuracy as is allowed "by complementarity" (which concept, complementarity, he explains brilliantly). He did everything brilliantly. Once, studying, with the great Brazilian theorist Mario Schenberg, ways of very efficient energy dissipation needed in the stars, they proposed that the energy should flow out in the form of neutrinos. This eventually became the well-known URCA model. Gamow named it after a famous casino at Rio de Janeiro, where money dissipated very efficiently too, at the green tables.Gamow is also the originator of the Big-Bang model of the universe, which is called by many "Gamow's cosmology". A great scientist, a great writer, a great wit!

The history of quantum theory ...

In my opinion, the great merit of this book is to show physics as a human adventure, with wins, frustation, surprises, excitement, healthy concorrence among scientists. Gamow is very good in this aspect, as we can see by his other books. Besides, it relives by far the most interesting and exciting age of physics. This history of the quantum theory is very well written, showing how each theoretical development gives the reasons and motivation for the following, how the matter started with the solution Planck has given to his problem, leading to the later formulations and great discoveries of Weisenberg, Schrodinger, Bohr... Very interesting and pleasant to read.