Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern ScienceA biography of two maverick scientists whose intellectual wanderlust kick-started modern genomics and cosmology. Max Delbruck and George Gamow, the so-called ordinary geniuses of Segre's third book, were not as famous or as decorated as some of their colleagues in midtwentieth-century physics, yet these two friends had a profound influence on how we now see the world, both on its largest scale (the universe) and its smallest (genetic code). Their maverick approach to research resulted in truly pioneering science. Wherever these men ventured, they were catalysts for great discoveries. Here Segre honors them in his typically inviting and elegant style and shows readers how they were far from "ordinary". While portraying their personal lives Segre, a scientist himself, gives readers an inside look at how science is done--collaboration, competition, the influence of politics, the role of intuition and luck, and the sense of wonder and curiosity that fuels these extraordinary minds. Ordinary Geniuses will appeal to the readers of Simon Singh, Amir Aczel, and other writers exploring the history of scientific ideas and the people behind them. |
Contents
Geo Grows | |
Göttingen and Copenhagen | |
Particle or Wave? | |
Maxs and Geos Early Careers | |
Copenhagen 1931 | |
Bohr Geo and | |
Back to Germany | |
The New Manchester | |
Alpha Beta Gamma | |
Big Bang Versus Steady State | |
30 | |
The Double Helix | |
Geo and | |
Zurich 1931 | |
Max Bohr and Biology | |
Max Berlin and Biology | |
Geo Escapes from Russia | |
The Russia Geo Left Behind | |
Geo Comes to America | |
The Suns Mysteries Revealed | |
Max Leaves Germany | |
Max in the New World | |
Fission | |
Supernovae and Neutron Stars | |
Max Meets Manny and | |
Hitting the Jackpot | |
What Is Life? | |
The Phage Group Grows | |
Geo and the Universe | |
Gamows Game | |
Geo Begins Again | |
Max Begins Again | |
The Molecular Biology That | |
The Phage Church Trinity Goes to Stockholm | |
The Triumph of the Big Bang | |
The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation | |
Cosmologys New | |
Einsteins Biggest Blunder | |
Duckling or Swan? | |
After the Golden | |
The Unavoidable and the Unfashionable | |
Mr Tompkins Arrives | |
Geos and Maxs Final Messages | |
Acknowledgements Notes | |
Bibliography | |
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Ordinary Geniuses: Max Delbrück, George Gamow, and the Origins of Genomics ... Gino Segrè No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
alpha alpha particles Alpher amino acids asked astronomer atomic bacteria bacteriophages Beadle began Berlin Bethe Big Bang biologists Bohr’s Bonhoeffer Caltech Cambridge Cold Spring Harbor Copenhagen cosmological constant cosmology Dirac discovery double helix Dyson earlier early Einstein electrons energy enzyme fellowship fission gene genetics genome Geo-MWL Geo’s George Gamow George Washington University German Göttingen Hans Bethe Heisenberg helium Hoyle hydrogen Ibid idea Institute interested Jim Watson laboratory Landau later lectures letter look Manny Max and Geo Max Delbrück Max’s Meitner microwave molecular biology molecules mutation Nazi neutrons Niels Bohr Nobel Prize nuclear physics nucleus paper particles Patoomb Pauli Penzias phages physicist Princeton problem proteins protons quantum mechanics radiation realized Russian Rutherford Schrödinger scientific scientists seemed Soviet stars stellar structure student supernovae Szilard theoretical physics theory thought Timofeev-Ressovsky universe’s Urca viruses Watson and Crick wrote York young