London, Macmillian and Co, 1954. Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary full cloth with title to spine. In ""Nature"", Vol. 173, 1968. Library stamp to upper right corner of title page, otherwise a fine and clean copy. Pp. 709-13. [Entier volume: LXVVI, 1246 pp.].
First printing of Gamow's exceedingly influential discovery of four different kinds of acino-acids, nucleotides, which were to influence Watson and Crick in their further work. To Gamow, most famous for his work within physics and cosmology, this was a highly unfamiliar field. His work was described as: ""perhaps the last example of amateurism in scientific work on a grand scale"".""In early 1954, less than a year after J. D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered the double helical structure of DNA, Gamow recognized that the information contained in the four different kinds of nucleotides (adenine, thymine, guanine, cytosine) constituting the DNA chains could be translated into the sequence of twenty amino acids which form protein molecules by counting all possible triplets one can form from four different quantities. This remarkable way in which Gamow could rapidly enter a more or less unfamiliar field at the forefront of its activity and make a highly creative contribution to it, often far more by intuition than by calculation, led Ulam to characterize his work as ""perhaps the last example of amateurism in scientific work on a grand scale."" It earned him membership in a number of professional societies-American Physical Society, Washington Philosophical Society, International Astronomical Union, American Astronomical Society, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters-as well as an overseas fellowship in Churchill College, Cambridge."" (DSB)""Even as he was starting research in relativistic cosmogony, Gamow came to think that the time was nearly ripe for phys-ics to help biology move beyond its descriptive stage. This perception probably derived from Erwin Schrödinger's What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell (1945) and his longtime friend Max Delbrück's successful migration from theoretical physics to experimental genetics. In any case, Gamow got so caught up with the idea that rejecting his initial plans to revive the Washington conferences with one focused on cosmogony, he instead devoted the first postwar gathering to ""the physics of living matter."" His preparations for the conference held in the fall of 1946, and his subse-quent endeavours to promote the infusion of more physics into biology, led Gamow to believe by the early 1950s that the central ""riddle of life"" is how each species' genes shape its distinctive proteins. But lacking any notion about the molecular structure of genes, he could not imagine how to formulate this enigma in a tangible way.In June 1953 Gamow got an idea for doing so from reading James Watson and Francis Crick's soon-to-be-famous Nature paper on DNA's structure. Confident that they were on the right track, he impulsively introduced himself to them by letter, praising them for their success in moving biology into the ""exact' sciences"" and expressing his hope that he could meet with them in England at the end of the summer to talk about the possibility of using combinatorics to tackle genetic problems. As both were planning to be away then, Watson discussed Gamow's letter briefly with Crick, then filed it away. In late October, undeterred by their failure to respond, Gamow sent a short note off to Nature on a ""Possible Relation between Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Protein Structures"" (1954). He opened by crediting Watson and Crick with having established that the basic hereditary materials are DNA molecules. Then he daringly outlined what soon evolved into the protein-coding research program. He proposed that each organism's DNA ""could be characterized by a long number written in a four-digital system"" that ""completely determined"" the composition of its unique complement of proteins, which in turn ""are long peptide chains formed by about 20 different amino-acids [that] can be considered as 'long' words based on a 20-letter alphabet."" The problem to be solved was how these ""four-digital 26 numbers [are] translated into such 'words.'"" Gamow closed by suggesting how this might be done and promising that a fuller account would be published elsewhere.During the next few months, Gamow plunged into work on the protein-coding problem. He wrote up an expanded version of his note in Nature for the National Academy of Sciences' Proceedings and, when it was not accepted there-possibly because Gamow jokingly listed his fictional character Tompkins as co-author-submitted it successfully (without Tompkins as co-author) to the Royal Danish Society of Sciences' biological series. He also spurred first Crick, then Watson, and then many other researchers-especially those associated with Caltech's Delbrück and Berkeley's Gunther Stent-to join the enterprise of identifying how DNAcoded proteins. As this growing research circle reviewed prior and ongoing experimental work of relevance, a consensus soon emerged that DNA did not serve as a simple template in protein synthesis. It appeared instead that the coding might be a two-step process in which DNA first coded RNA and then RNA coded proteins. Although initially resisting this view, Gamow ended up as the ""synthesizer"" in the ""RNATie Club,"" founded in mid-1954 to foster the circle's informal communications and camaraderie.Gamow's involvement in the expanding circle of coding researchers remained intense for another year and a half. He found it stimulating to be once again on the wave crest of an exciting new specialty. Just as important if not more so, he enjoyed being at the center of the ambitious circle's partying and joking. But starting in late 1955, years before a consensus emerged about the coding of proteins, Gamow's engagement with the problem wilted. One reason was that his marriage of 23years had just fallen apart. Asecond, and more compelling reason was that, as he had experienced toward the end of his active participation in nuclear, stellar, and cosmogonical researches, he was getting bored with coding research because the opportunities for someone with his freewheeling style were ever more limited in this increasingly competitive and empirically constrained field"" (George Gamow: A Biographical Memoir, National Academy of Sciences).
Berlin, Julius Springer, 1928. Without wrappers. In ""Zeifschrift für Physik, 51 Band., Dritte und Viertes Heft. Titlepage to Bd. 51. Pp. 165-308.(Entire issue offered). Gamov's paper: pp. 204-12., textillustr. A stamp on titlepage.
First printing of Gamow's first major contribution to physics, his theory of alpha-decay.By 1928, George Gamow had solved the theory of the alpha decay via tunneling. The alpha particle is trapped in a ""potential well"" by the nucleus. In classic physics, it is forbidden to escape, but according to the then newly discovered principles of quantum mechanics, it has a tiny (but non-zero) probability of ""tunneling"" through the barrier and appearing on the other side to escape the nucleus. Gamow solved a model potential for the nucleus and derived from first principles a relationship between the half-life of the decay, and the energy of the emission. Alpha particles were first described in the investigations of radioactivity by Ernest Rutherford in 1899.""One of the first applications of quantum tunneling was by the physicist George Gamow in 1928, soon after the development of quantum mechanics. Alpha particles, which consist of two protons and two neutrons, are emitted by some nuclei. For example, ordinary uranium, 238U, with a lifetime of 4.5 billion years, decays by emitting an alpha particle.For decades alpha decay had presented a problem: the emitted alpha particles seemed to have too little energy to get out of the nucleus. The Coulomb barrier arises from the combined effect of the Coulomb repulsion between the alpha particle and the nucleus (both positively charged) and the nuclear force that attracts the two particles. The energy of the emitted alpha particle is less than the top of this barrier. Classically, the particle would be unable to get out of the nucleus, but it obviously does.Gamow suggested that alpha particles tunnel through the barrier. If so, the half-life of the decay should depend on the width and height of the barrier, and it does: the lower and thinner the barrier, the greater the chance of penetrating it. As the alpha particle's energy increases, the particle sees both a lower and thinner barrier so the probability of getting through increases extremely rapidly. For example, the energies of the alphas emitted by 232Th and 212Po are 4.05 MeV and 8.95 MeV, respectively, while their respective half-lives are 14 billion years and 0.3 millionth of a second. Thus, a factor of about two in energy produces a difference in half-lives of sixteen orders of magnitude (that is, sixteen powers of ten)!"" (Rigden, Building Blocks of Matter: A Supplement to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of , p. 393).Parkinson ""Breakthroughs"", 1928 P.
Berlin, Julius Springer, 1928. 8vo. Bound in contemporary half cloth with marbled boards and gilt lettering to spine. In ""Zeifschrift für Physik, 51 Band., 1928"", VII, (1), 903 pp.]. (Entire volumeoffered). Library stamp to front free end-paper. A fine and clean copy. [Gamow:] Pp. 204-212..
First printing of Gamow's seminal paper in which he explained alfa-decay for the first time. By 1928, George Gamow had solved the theory of the alpha decay via tunneling. The alpha particle is trapped in a ""potential well"" by the nucleus. In classic physics, it is forbidden to escape, but according to the then newly discovered principles of quantum mechanics, it has a tiny (but non-zero) probability of ""tunneling"" through the barrier and appearing on the other side to escape the nucleus. Gamow solved a model potential for the nucleus and derived from first principles a relationship between the half-life of the decay, and the energy of the emission. Alpha particles were first described in the investigations of radioactivity by Ernest Rutherford in 1899.Parkinson 507.""One of the first applications of quantum tunneling was by the physicist George Gamow in 1928, soon after the development of quantum mechanics. Alpha particles, which consist of two protons and two neutrons, are emitted by some nuclei. For example, ordinary uranium, 238U, with a lifetime of 4.5 billion years, decays by emitting an alpha particle.For decades alpha decay had presented a problem: the emitted alpha particles seemed to have too little energy to get out of the nucleus. The Coulomb barrier arises from the combined effect of the Coulomb repulsion between the alpha particle and the nucleus (both positively charged) and the nuclear force that attracts the two particles. The energy of the emitted alpha particle is less than the top of this barrier. Classically, the particle would be unable to get out of the nucleus, but it obviously does.Gamow suggested that alpha particles tunnel through the barrier. If so, the half-life of the decay should depend on the width and height of the barrier, and it does: the lower and thinner the barrier, the greater the chance of penetrating it. As the alpha particle's energy increases, the particle sees both a lower and thinner barrier so the probability of getting through increases extremely rapidly. For example, the energies of the alphas emitted by 232Th and 212Po are 4.05 MeV and 8.95 MeV, respectively, while their respective half-lives are 14 billion years and 0.3 millionth of a second. Thus, a factor of about two in energy produces a difference in half-lives of sixteen orders of magnitude (that is, sixteen powers of ten)!"" (Rigden, Building Blocks of Matter: A Supplement to the Macmillan Encyclopedia of , p. 393).
London, Macmillan and Co, 1948. Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary full cloth. In ""Nature"", Vol 162, October - December. Ex-libris to front free end-paper and library stamps to title page and first page of index. Fine and clean. Pp. 680-82.
First printing of Gamow's paper in which his theory of ""Hypothetical Universe Collapse"" is presented.""In 1948 he predicted that all matter in the universe is in a state of general rotation about some distant center"" at the same time he began developing his ideas on the origin and frequency distribution of the chemical elements, postulating that before the ""big bang"" there existed a primordial state of matter, (""ylem"") consisting of neutrons and their decay products, protons and electrons, mixed together in a sea of high-energy radiation-the basic ingredients necessary for the formation of deuterons and heavier, and heavier nuclei as the universe subsequently expanded. Most of the detailed theoretical calculations were carried out by R. Alpher (assisted by R. Herman), which resulted in the well-know Alpher-Bethe-Gamow letter in Physical Review of 1 April 1948-Bethe's name, in one of Gamow's more famous jokes, being added gratuitously to conform to the Greek alphabet. This work also led to the prediction of a residual blackbody radiation spectrum, the remnant from the primordial ""big bang"" corresponding to few degrees Kelvin. This radiation was first detected in early 1965 by A. A. Penzias and R. W. Wilson"" much more definite evidence was found the following year by P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson (in experiments initiated by R. R. Dicke and P. J. E. Peebles) at Princeton University. Cosmological questions concerned Gamow to the end, one of his last investigations being on the possible inconstancy of the gravitational constant and the charge or the electron."" (DSB)
Bâle, Birkhäuser, 1947, in-8, XVIII-284 pp, 16 pl, Pleine toile de l'éditeur sous jaquette illustrée, Première édition allemande de The Birth and Death of the Sun, paru à l'origine en 1940. Troisième tome de la collection Wissenschaft und Kultur. L'ouvrage est illustré de planches en noir et de 60 figures dessinées dans le texte. L'auteur porte ici à la connaissance du grand public les travaux sur la chimie atomique et la cosmologie. Georges Gamow (1904 -1968) est connu pour ses ouvrages de vulgarisation, en particulier pour la série des Mr Tompkins. Bon exemplaire. Couverture rigide
Bon XVIII-284 pp., 16 pl.
Dunod Malicorne sur Sarthe, 72, Pays de la Loire, France 1956 Book condition, Etat : Bon broché, sous couverture imprimée éditeur vert bouteille illustrée d'un dessin de dinosaure en noir grand In-8 1 vol. - 220 pages
58 figures dans le texte en noir et blanc, et 35 figures sur planches hors-texte et dans le texte, certaines dépliantes (complet) 1ere traduction en français, 1956 Contents, Chapitres : Préface, table, table des planches, table des illustrations, xiv, Texte, 206 pages - Dimensions de la Terre - Age de la Terre - L'heureux évènement - La Terre donne jour à une fille - La famille des planètes - Voyage au centre de la Terre - Grandeur et décadence des montagnes - L'évolution des continents - Climats du temps passé - La vie à la surface de la Terre - Coup d'oeil sur l'avenir - George Gamow (4 mars 1904 à Odessa, Empire russe - 19 août 1968 à Boulder, Colorado, États-Unis), né Gueorgui Antonovitch Gamov, est un physicien théoricien, astronome, cosmologiste et vulgarisateur scientifique américano-russe. Il a proposé la théorie de la radioactivité a par l'effet tunnel quantique. Il a effectué des recherches sur la formation des étoiles, la nucléosynthèse stellaire, la nucléosynthèse primordiale à la suite du Big Bang, le fond diffus cosmologique de micro-ondes, et la génétique au niveau moléculaire. couverture à peine jaunie avec d'infimes traces de pliures aux coins des plats, intérieur sinon frais et propre, cela reste un bon exemplaire, bien complet de toutes les planches hors-texte
"BARDEEN, J. (+) W. H. BRATTAIN (+) W. SHOCKLEY (+) W. L. PEARSON (+) TOMONAGA (+) G. GAMOW (+) R. P. FEYNMAN (+) J. SCHWINGER.
Reference : 47051
(1948)
Lancaster, PA & New York, American Physical Society, 1948. Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary black full cloth with gilt lettering to spine. In ""Nature"", Vol. 74, 1948. Spine with a bit a wear and front hinge a bit loose, otherwise a fine and clean copy.
First printing of the single most important volume of The Physical Review containing an exceptional number of important papers - amongst other the first paper to describe the transistor: One of the most important inventions of the 20th Century which awarded them the Nobel Prize in physics in 1956.,The three first titles are the short letters in Physical Review which first announced the invention of the transistor. The following year Bardeen and Brattain published the more comprehensive report ""Physical Principles Involved in Transistor Action"". This paper was simultaneously published, the same month, in The Bell System Technical Journal (Number 2 volume 28). In 1956 Bardeen and Brattain shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with William Shockley ""for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect"". In 1972 Bardeen again received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the development of the theory of superconductivity (BCS-theory), and thus became the only person, until this day, to receive the Nobel Prize more than once in the same field. ""The invention of the transistor would in time change the world by making possible the microchip and all the devices that followed from it, but the discovery ruined the spirit of the Bell Laboratories semiconductor group. Shockley, who had been uninvolved in the invention of the original transistor, stunned Bardeen and Brattain when he tried to patent the invention in his name, hoping to base it on his suggestion of the field-effect amplifier. Shockley's plan failed because the patent attorneys discovered that Julius E. Lilienfeld, a Polish-American inventor, had already patented the field-effect notion in 1930. Shockley further antagonized Brattain and Bardeen by preventing them from working on the consequences of their historic invention, a second transistor, known as the junction device, which could better be used commercially."" (DSB)The issue also contain two of the papers leading to Richard Feynman's 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics, (A Relativistic Cut-Off for Classical Electrodynamics & Relativistic Cut-Off for Quantum Electrodynamics) and the paper that led to Polykarp Kusch's 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics (The Magnetic Moment of the Electron)Also containing Maria Goeppert-Mayer paper that led to her 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics (On Closed Shells in Nuclei), the seminal P. A. M. Dirac paper on magnetic monopoles (A theory of Magnetic Poles) and three important papers on The Big Bang Theory by George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and George Herman (The Origin of the Elements and the Separation of Galaxies & Thermonuclear Reactions in the Expanding Universe & On the Relative Abundance of the Elements & A Neutron-Capture Theory of the Formation and Relative Abundance of the Elements).See Hook & Norman: Origins of Cyberspace, No. 450.
København, Bianco Luno, 1953. 8vo. In the original printed wrappers. Offprint from ""Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab"", Vol. 27, Number 10. Small tear to front wrapper, otherwise fine and clean. 13 pp.
Offprint edition of Gamow's important work in his series on the expanding universe in which he combines the direct observations at the present time, from conditions necessary for the formation of protogalaxies, and the theory of the origin of atomic species.
Dunod. 1970. In-8. Broché. Etat d'usage, Tâchée, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur frais. 286 pages - nombreuses illustrations en noir et blanc dans et hors texte - mouillures sur les plats.. . . . Classification Dewey : 570-Sciences de la vie
Illustrations de George Gamow - Traduit par Geneviève Gueron. Classification Dewey : 570-Sciences de la vie
Paris, Dunod, 1970. 16 x 21, 286 pp., 60 figures, broché, bon état (couverture légèrement jaunie).
"Illustrations de George Gamow; traduit par Geneviève Gueron."
Paris. Dunod. 1954. In-8. Br. Qlques photographies et figs. 165 p.BE.
Paris. Dunod. 1956. In-8. Br. Très nbrs photographies et figs. N&B. 206 p. BE.
Couverture souple. Broché. 244 pages. Couverture légèrement défraîchie.
Livre. Traduit par G. Guéron. Editions Dunod, 1961.
Couverture souple. En bon état. Broché. 106 pages. Couverture légèrement défraîchie.
Livre. Traduit par Geneviève Guéron. Editions Dunod, 1959.
Couverture souple. Broché. 228 pages.
Livre. Traduit de l'anglais par Geneviève Guéron. Editions Dunod, 1966.
Dunod 1955 129 pages in-8. 1955. broché. 129 pages. Illustrations en noir
Etat correct. Couverture salie avec un coin corné et deux coupures au dos
, Den Haag, Van Stockum & zoon, 1953, 152pp.+ 10pp.buitentekstill., gecart., stempeltje, goede staat
Paris, Dunod, 1966. in-8°, 228 pages, ill. et fig. in-t., index, broche, couverture illustree
Bel exemplaire. [SC-4] [F]
Paris, Dunod, 1961. Hardcover in-8, 703 pp., nombreuses illustrations et figures in-t., cartonnage toile grise de l'éditeur, jaquette illustrée.
Accrocs à la jaquette sinon tres bel exemplaire [MI-21]
Paris, Dunod, 1961. in-8, ill. et fig. in-t., broché, couv. ill.
Bel exemplaire. [DV-9]
Dunod. 1955. In-8. Broché. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur frais. 206 pages - nombreuses figures en noir et blanc dans le texte - quelques planches en noir et blanc dépliante.. . . . Classification Dewey : 550-Sciences de la Terre et des autres mondes
traduit par Geneviève Guéron - édition revue par l'auteur. Classification Dewey : 550-Sciences de la Terre et des autres mondes
Dunod. 1956. In-8. Broché. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur frais. 116 pages - frontispice en noir et blanc - nombreux dessins en noir et blanc dans et hors texte.. . . . Classification Dewey : 530-Physique
Traduit par Geneviève Guéron - édition revue par l'auteur. Classification Dewey : 530-Physique
Dunod. 1955. In-8. Broché. Etat d'usage, Couv. légèrement pliée, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur acceptable. 98 pages - quelques illustrations en noir et blanc dans le texte - coins frottés - adhésif sur les coiffes.. . . . Classification Dewey : 530-Physique
traduit de l'anglais par Geneviève Guéron - illustré par John Hookham. Classification Dewey : 530-Physique