Overview

A fascinating tribute to the forefathers of two of today’s most exciting scientific fields Thanks to Max Delbruck and George Gamow, today we have mapped the human genome and understand the ramifications of the Big Bang. In his characteristically inviting and elegant style, Gino Segre brings to life the story of these two great scientists and their long friendship and offers an accessible inside look the people behind the scenes of science—the collaboration and competition, the quirks and failures, the role of intuition and luck, and the sense of wonder and curiosity that keeps these extraordinary minds going.

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9780143121305

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Reviews

Segre 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 Weekly <p> An exuberant dual biography that integrates developments in quantum physics, cosmology and genetics since the 1920s with the lives of these two scientists. --Kirkus Reviews <p> Gino Segre's fascinating dual biography of George Gamow and Max Delbruck, Ordinary Geniuses. Gamow was a theoretical physicist who made an interesting foray into the biology of protein synthesis, while Delbruck was a theoretical physicist who became a biologist and then won the Nobel Prize for his work in genetics. --Wall Street Journal <p> In parallel chapters Segre has sensitively and insightfully narrated chronologically Delbruck 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 Scientist <p> Segre 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 <p> Ordinary Geniuses makes me wistfully wonder if the world will ever again witness the coming together of such fun-loving intellectual brilliance. <br> --James D. Watson, author of The Double Helix <br> George Gamow and Max Delbruck 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. <br> --Dr. Freeman Dyson, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study <br> <br> Ordinary Geniuses is no ordinary

Author Information

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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