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Ordinary Geniuses: Max Delbruck, George Gamow, and the Origins of Genomics and Big Bang Cosmology
A 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.
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.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2011
About the author
Gino Segrè
16 books24 followersProfessor emeritus who started teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967. Pursued with enthusiasm and considerable a career as a high-energy elementary particle theorist with a side interest in astrophysics.
A long-term interest in history led to his first book, a tale of temperature in all its broad ramifications.
A long-term interest in history led to his first book, a tale of temperature in all its broad ramifications.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 4, 2017
Great biographical book telling the stories of George Gamow and Max Delbrück, two pioneering scientists who shared the ability to jump between fields whenever they find an interesting question. The stories behind scientific breakthroughs I find very important, especially to the aspiring scientist. This book is a reminder to all that there are many paths to success, and that it’s never too late to do something.
April 21, 2012
I grew up with George Gamow's popular science books so I was very interested in this look at his personal and scientific life. Pairing him with Max Delbruck provides an overview of the development of cosmology and molecular biology.
April 29, 2012
Interesting and well written portrayals of Delbruck and Gamov- only 'ordinary geniuses'- as Segre playfully calls them, yet far from ordinary scientists and human beings. Max Delbruck is best known for his work on macrophages (how bacteria become resistant to viruses through mutation) which paved the road for genetics and genetic code discovery, and for which he got the Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine. Gamov is a flamboyant Russian physicist who is the father of the Big Bang theory. Both of them were proteges of Niels Bohr, knew each other and lived roughly at the same time. Both came from countries that became oppressive for freethinking scientists in the thirties of the twentieth century and both of them found asylum in the States during the Second World War. They both had the audacity to propose extraordinary theses and spur research that would open new areas in science and then abandon it when they were becoming too comfortable in it and start to work in completely different fields.
3.5/5
3.5/5
August 8, 2017
Про фізику 20 століття, та дві дисципліни, які виникли тоді: космологія та молекулярна генетика. А ще про Макса Дельбрюка та Георгія Гамова (уродженця Одеси), які долучились до формування цих дисциплін у зародку. Викладання науково-популярне, формул немає, але щоб нагадати як розвивалась наука в 20 столітті - саме те.
Бонусом цікаві замальовки на тлі "епохи": як Гамов та його жінка намагались перепливти Чорне море біля Алушти аби втекти від комуністів (нічого не вийшло), про Гетінген 20-х років, та згадки про Гамова та Ландау, що на одному мотоциклі подорожували Шотландськими селами. А ще про Паулі, Бора, Бете, Вотсона, Кріка та ще багатьох фізиків та біологів.
Бонусом цікаві замальовки на тлі "епохи": як Гамов та його жінка намагались перепливти Чорне море біля Алушти аби втекти від комуністів (нічого не вийшло), про Гетінген 20-х років, та згадки про Гамова та Ландау, що на одному мотоциклі подорожували Шотландськими селами. А ще про Паулі, Бора, Бете, Вотсона, Кріка та ще багатьох фізиків та біологів.
January 25, 2021
Чудовий екскурс у життя передових науковців!
June 22, 2019
The book centers around the lives of two scientists, but really reads like a partial history of many of the most important scientific discoveries and works that took place during their lives. Especially interesting were the effects of World War II on science due to scientists relocating to different countries. I particularly enjoyed the pieces about the conferences that Gamow put together and the importance to these men of collaboration between professionals of different disciplines, which was not common at the time.
December 16, 2020
Така неймовірна кількість геніїв на друкований лист не може залишити байдужим. Дельбрюк, Гамов, Дірак, Айнштайн, Вотсон, Крік ...
З мінусів - або автор або переклад, не дуже легко читається.
З мінусів - або автор або переклад, не дуже легко читається.
August 24, 2011
An inspired choice to do a paired biography of George Gamow and Max Max Delbrück. They were both born at the turn of the century, one in Russia and one in Germany, both started in quantum mechanics and then branched out -- Gamow to nuclear physics and cosmology and Delbrück much further afield to biology. And hovering over both of them from the beginning to nearly the end of the book is Niels Bohr and the "spirit of Copenhagen".
One of the things this book conveys most beautifully is how Gamow and Delbrück in their different ways created new circles of scientists in their adopted country of the United States, bringing together different disciplines that rarely worked together and pushing them forward onto new questions that had never been asked before. The results were breakthroughs in the nuclear physics of the creation of atoms in the big bang (in Gamow's case) and the forerunners of DNA theory (in Delbrück's case).
What is particularly interesting about focusing on Gamow and Delbrück, as opposed to say Einstein or Heisenberg or Watson, is how much they got wrong. But they got it wrong in interesting ways that led to new discoveries and theories that were right.
Gino Segre does a good job of shifting between the two and shifting between biography, historical context, and science. Highly recommended -- although not as good as Segre's earlier book Faust in Copenhagen, which also portrays the way scientists think and work together, in that case in producing the ensemble production we know as quantum mechanics.
One of the things this book conveys most beautifully is how Gamow and Delbrück in their different ways created new circles of scientists in their adopted country of the United States, bringing together different disciplines that rarely worked together and pushing them forward onto new questions that had never been asked before. The results were breakthroughs in the nuclear physics of the creation of atoms in the big bang (in Gamow's case) and the forerunners of DNA theory (in Delbrück's case).
What is particularly interesting about focusing on Gamow and Delbrück, as opposed to say Einstein or Heisenberg or Watson, is how much they got wrong. But they got it wrong in interesting ways that led to new discoveries and theories that were right.
Gino Segre does a good job of shifting between the two and shifting between biography, historical context, and science. Highly recommended -- although not as good as Segre's earlier book Faust in Copenhagen, which also portrays the way scientists think and work together, in that case in producing the ensemble production we know as quantum mechanics.
May 9, 2012
This was an interesting and enjoyable book. The lives of Delbruck and Gamov were woven together and the two old friends lived remarkable lives. Gamov come across as involved in many of the breakthroughs in physics in the first half of the 20th century but his "flightiness" meant the concentration needed to get a Nobel Prize was missing. Delbruck did get a Nobel Prize, however, and after deciding that physics was not going to be a career for him, went on to excel in the early development of genomics.
April 5, 2013
A very readable and entertaining book about these two scientists, who both started as particle physicists and took divergent paths. There was time that I knew Gino Segre, a most charming fellow, and I'm glad he has become a charming writer. This is a book that non-scientists can read even though I got a bit lost in molecular biology, but that can't be helped when one is so ignorant of such things.
October 30, 2011
This definitely lost a star for the last three chapters. it was quite good up until then...Gamow and Delbruck didn't seem very ordinary to me! The end seemed to go away from following Max's and Geo's lives and got into some philosophical bits I didn't bargain for.
May 29, 2015
Fascinating stories of cosmology and DNA, and the interplay between Gamow and Delbrück. But Gino isn't as good a write as his father, Emilio, was, so the story lags at times. Not as good as 'The Double Helix" nor "My World Line" by Gamow, but still interesting. As always, I learned something.
May 27, 2015
one of the best books i have ever read. it gives insight on how science used to work. as someone who studied genomics but who works for cosmologists i am convinced that this book picked me rather than the other way round.
June 15, 2012
I picked this up to read since I really enjoyed his "Matter of Degrees" book. I guess I am not into his bibliographic style however. I put this down after a chapter due to disinterest.
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March 15, 2012I read this in 2012
March 25, 2013
Great example of the interesting stories behind science. The lives of the scientists reveal they are people who made things happen by dedication and perseverance while remaining normal people.
July 30, 2013
More of a biography than I was expecting. Not what I was looking for, though probably my bad for overlooking it in the overview.
November 23, 2013
Much more of biographie than science left me dissapointed. But it did intrigued me for further reading on DNA.
June 2, 2015
ordinary stories
October 22, 2019
Ordinary? I'd rather say not!
June 7, 2021
Дуже яскравий час для науки і дуже цікаві люди у книзі, особливо Гамов. Прочитала з великим задоволенням.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews