Table of Contents

Foreword by R. Igor Gamow. Editor's Note. Introduction. I. THE ATOM. 1. The Atom in Philosophy and Chemistry. 2. The Electric Nature of Matter. 3. The Quantum of Radiant Energy. 4. The Bohr Atom. 5. Wave Nature of Particles. 6. Natural Radioactivity. 7. Artificial Nuclear Transformations. 8. The Structure of the Atomic Nucleus. 9. Large-Scale Nuclear Reactions. 10. Mystery Particles. II. MATTER AND ENERGY. 11. Bodies in Motion. 12. Vibrations and Waves. 13. Heat and Temperature. 14. Electromagnetism. 15. Light, Visible and Invisible. 16. Modern Views on Space, Time, and Motion. Appendix: Advances in Particle Physics. Notes. Index.

About the Author

George Gamow was born in Ukraine in 1904 and defected to the United States from the former Soviet Union in the 1930s. He was a professor of physics at George Washington University and the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a leading researcher in nuclear physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. The global impact of his popular scientific writings, books such as the "Mr. Tompkins" series and One, Two, Three Infinity, was recognized by the United Nations in 1956 when he was awarded the Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science. He died in 1968.