Ebook Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern Science
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Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern Science
Ebook Ordinary Geniuses: How Two Mavericks Shaped Modern Science
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Review
Segrè spins a rousing tale of scientific thought and adventure. And like his subjects, he makes a convincing case for approaching new problems with a sense of wonder.--Publisher’s WeeklyAn exuberant dual biography that integrates developments in quantum physics, cosmology and genetics since the 1920s with the lives of these two scientists.--Kirkus ReviewsGino Segrè’s fascinating dual biography of George Gamow and Max Delbrück, “Ordinary Geniuses.” Gamow was a theoretical physicist who made an interesting foray into the biology of protein synthesis, while Delbrück was a theoretical physicist who became a biologist and then won the Nobel Prize for his work in genetics.--Wall Street JournalIn parallel chapters Segrè has sensitively and insightfully narrated chronologically Delbrück and Gamow’s personal and professional lives. And while doing so, he has clearly presented and explained their scientific contributions; the prior works on which they were based; and their present day importance and relevance.--American ScientistSegrè convincingly shows how the pair’s maverick personalities led to their discoveries, while their restlessness often stopped them seeing their ideas to maturity.--New Scientist“Ordinary Geniuses makes me wistfully wonder if the world will ever again witness the coming together of such fun-loving intellectual brilliance.”—James D. Watson, author of The Double Helix “George Gamow and Max Delbrück were free spirits and practical jokers. They broke away from the mainstream of science in the 1930s and found new ways of thinking that opened the way to new sciences in the 1950s. George invented Big Bang cosmology, and Max invented molecular biology. This book brings them magnificently to life. It gives us a fresh view of the way new sciences are born.”—Dr. Freeman Dyson, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study “Ordinary Geniuses is no ordinary book. Gino Segrè, a masterly storyteller, takes us off the beaten path to view two revolutions in twentieth-century science from a novel perspective. By chronicling the lives of two renegade scientists, Max Delbrück and George Gamow, Segrè puts the birth of both molecular biology and modern cosmology in a whole new light. An engaging read.”—Marcia Bartusiak, author of The Day We Found the Universe “Gino Segrè is an accomplished scientist, a gifted writer, and a meticulous scholar. His talents come together in this wonderful book, the story of the intertwining careers of two quite amazing scientists. But it is more. It is a loving ode to twentieth-century science and will enthrall as it instructs.”—Kenneth W. Ford, author of 101 Quantum Questions: What You Need to Know About the World You Can't See; former director, American Institute of Physics “A marvelous book. Segre describes vividly how Delbruck helped to establish the new science of molecular biology while Gamow went into cosmology and originated our current view of the Big Bang. They both left major impressions on science as might be expected from “ordinary geniuses.””—Alex Rich, Sedgwick Professor of Biophysics at M.I.T.
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About the Author
Gino Segre is the author of A Matter of Degrees and Faust in Copenhagen. An internationally renowned expert in high-energy elementary particle theoretical physics, he is a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Philadelphia.
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Product details
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (November 26, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143121308
ISBN-13: 978-0143121305
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.0 out of 5 stars
19 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,283,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Segre offers some new perspectives into the lives, personalities and colleagues of two remarkable twentieth century scientists. Much of the rich tapestry of interactions and events that make this an interesting book are recently treated by other authors, but Ordinary Geniuses contains many special insights. Bohr's fondness of complementarity, and his view that "the existence of life must be considered as an elementary fact that cannot be explained" is surprising in its likeness to Pascual Jordan's beyond-physics force of vitalism (a little like the odd rationale offered more recently by Gould that it is reasonable to remove our very existence from the logic of science).Delbruck's bottom-up physical examination of biological phenomena helps mark an important change in science, and presaged Schrodinger's book, What is Life. Similarly, Gamow's transition to cosmology achieved more than the foundations of big bang theory, his collegiate approach through Washington conferences, in the vein of Bohr's colloquia, stimulated many achievements in science. One is reminded, as the central characters bob from low to high in their careers, of the importance of philanthropic institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation in keeping the scientific ball rolling. `Geo' Gamow is well portrayed as the vital, hard-living, gregarious exponent of the "pioneering thing". Max Delbruck is the challenging, restless soul that some, other than this warm and respecting author, might term brash. This trait can certainly be forgiven considering Delbruck's almost naïve abhorrence of secrecy in science and his frequent admonition "Don't do fashionable research", refreshing perspectives that Segre repeats as sage advice.The themes of the fundamental physical processes of life and of big bang cosmology are examined through the process of science. Linking the lives of two of these two pioneers proves to be a useful and memorable approach, if occasionally contrived or needy of hyperbole, and Segre's understanding of the science and the scientists make the project work.
The book is in general, nice, but it jumps from one scientist to the other and in time constantly, so it feels a little fragmented/disconnected.As other reviewers have commented, these researchers have few things in common career and life wise, so sometimes the links are a little forced.The book gives, however, a really nice general picture of the state of research in biology and astrophysics at the time, and just this makes it worth it. I would read it again and recommend to friends interested in history and development of biological and/or astrophysics research.
"Ordinary Geniuses" by Gino Segrè"Ordinary Geniuses" pleasantly relates the historical intertwining of Physics and Biology from the 1930's to the 1960's through the lives of George Gamow and Max Delbrück.George Gamow (1904 - 1968) discovered radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle and worked on star formation, "Big Bang" cosmology, creation of chemical elements from hydrogen, cosmic microwave background, and genetics. Max Delbrück (1906 - 1981) studied astrophysics moving to biology studying genetics, bacteria and their viruses or `phage', and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969 for the replication mechanism and genetic structure of viruses.This dual focus allows a comparison of the development of the new fields of `Big Bang' cosmology and molecular biology. Yet there are two quibbles.Is the "Ordinary" qualification to "Geniuses" necessary or deserved? These days, the term "genius" seems to be well defined in James Gleick's book on Richard Feynman titled "Genius". ("There are two kinds of geniuses, the `ordinary' and the `magicians'. An ordinary genius is a person that you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery about how their mind works. Once we understand what they have done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians ... where ... the working of their minds is for all intents and purposes incomprehensible. Even after we understand what they have done, the process by which they have done it is completely dark.") But is the stratification of "Genius" v's "Ordinary Genius" warranted in this book? Not really.Secondly, the lives of these two scientists did intertwine to an extent and there were common traits such as their maverick approach breaking away from the mainstream. Yet does the switching from Physics to Biology and back burden the story, particularly when combined with the necessary personal and historical context plus associated anecdotes? [Incidentally, a good anecdote is that about Wolfgang Pauli "... you never had to worry about asking him a stupid question because he regarded all questions as stupid". And of course the famous 'alpha/beta/gamma' paper where Hans Bethe was added as second author to a paper by Ralph Alpher and George Gamow simply for effect; and even an attempt to get Bob Herman to change his name to Delter to get the foursome 'alpha/beta/gamma/delta'.]These quibbles aside, the story of both maverick scientists George Gamow and Max Delbrück gives rare insights into two major revolutions of twentieth century science from an historical viewpoint and the personal view of grasping the power of intellectual freedom. Both scientists founded entirely new areas of the highest intellectual achievement. Achievement only restrained by the false assumptions that the origin of the universe and the origin of life on earth were beyond the bounds of science [e.g. "... scientists in the 1950's felt `uncomfortable' talking about anything as remote as the universes first minutes" so they did not look for the microwave background radiation, delaying its discovery for a decade; and similar delays to appreciate that DNA is the carrier of genetic information].Perhaps the next step is to search for further reading of these two geniuses, either together as presented by Gino Segrè or just the reader's favorite. After all, thanks in a large part to them, today we understand the ramifications of the Big Bang and have mapped the human genome.Malcolm Cameron13 September 2011
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