Attached to the book is a letter from Qiu Yong, president of Tsinghua University, which reads:

From One to Infinity is one of the most influential popular science masterpieces in the world today. The author george gamow is a world-famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist. In his book, he skillfully combines mathematics, physics and biology with vivid language, and presents it to readers in an easy-to-understand and interesting way, so that readers can wander in the palace of science, feel the charm of science and enlighten their dreams. "

The first edition of From One to Infinity was published in 1946. After 73 years, why is it still the best choice for popular science works in the eyes of almost everyone?

1.

George gamow, the author of From One to Infinity, is an excellent "all-rounder" in science. The barrier of discipline seems to be broken in his confusion, and he has made great achievements in many different fields magically.

Perhaps we can get a glimpse from the inscription in memory of him in the Physics Department of Washington University:

"Gamov is famous for the following deeds: developing the' big bang theory' of the universe; Explain the α decay of nuclear by quantum tunneling: describe the spin-induced β decay by Edward Taylor; Start the droplet model in nuclear physics; Introducing "Gamow" factor into star reaction rate and element formation; Establish models of red giant stars, supernovae and neutron stars; First of all, it puts forward how the genetic code can be transcribed; And popularize science through a series of works such as The Adventures of Mr. tompkins. "

James dewey watson, the Nobel Prize winner and the father of DNA, once commented in his autobiography Genes, Girls and Gamow:

"A big urchin, from atoms to genes, and jumped into space travel. He is involved in these fields at the same time and never expects every exploration to have results, so he always looks for fun in the process. "

Gamov wrote 18 popular science works in his life. Mr. tompkins, who roams the scientific field, is almost a symbol of "popular science" and "science" in the memory of a generation of westerners. But after writing several books about physics and mathematics, Gamov found that,

If ordinary people want to truly understand the beauty of science, they must write an all-encompassing work that can truly cover all categories of "science"!

So there was this book "From an Atom to Infinity".

In this book, there are natural sciences, namely mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology, "such as atoms, stars, nebulae, entropy and genes;" For example, whether people can bend space, why rockets become shorter, and many other equally interesting things. "

2.

Although From One to Infinity reads "To my son Igor, who is a young man who wants to be a cowboy" on the title page, this book is essentially different from those children's popular science such as Grandpa the Scientist, and it is actually quite difficult.

Image source: "Hunziyue" of WeChat official account "You don't need calculus to buy food, but why do we have to learn mathematics?" 》

Other people's popular science books pay attention to a "simple explanation", while Gamov's "Pleasure Guide" pursues a "profound explanation".

But more than 70 years later, people found that this contrary popular science book was not abandoned because the issues discussed were too profound and obscure. On the contrary, people are immersed in it and enjoy it. It turns out that many scientific problems are only interesting if you think deeply.

For example, Gamov said that as creatures in the three-dimensional world, we are gods to people in the two-dimensional world, because "we have one advantage, that is, we can observe the world on the plane from the top of the two-dimensional space, that is, the third direction."

Gamov's sharp point is that he always thinks deeply, for example, if the fourth dimension refers to time, how to build a model of the four-dimensional world?

Specifically, you can imagine yourself as a four-dimensional space body. It is like a long rubber rod, which lasts from the day you were born to the end of your life. Unfortunately, it is impossible to draw a four-dimensional object on paper, so we take a two-dimensional plane as an example to express this idea. The time direction we take here is perpendicular to the two-dimensional plane where Pingren is located. This photo only shows a short part of the life of a flat person. As for the whole process, it should be represented by a much longer rubber rod: the end from the baby is very thin, and it has been changing for many years until it dies, and then it begins to decompose.

George gamow's "From One to Infinity" Fruit and Wheat Culture, 20 19.9.

3.

But this is a "not difficult" book, because Gamov himself is a very storyteller, and many abstract theories have become particularly easy to understand after his retelling.

For example, when talking about how to understand the speed of light, he would say:

Suppose a person goes to a planet 9 light years away in a spaceship with the approximate speed of light, people will probably think that it takes at least 18 years to make a round trip. In fact, if the speed of the spacecraft reaches 99.99999999% of the speed of light, your watch, heart, breathing, digestion and thinking will be slowed down by 70,000 times, so it will take 18 years for a round trip, which is only a few hours in your opinion. If you start from the earth after breakfast and land on the surface of the destination planet, you can have lunch. Return immediately after lunch, and you can go back to Earth for dinner. By the time you get home, your relatives and friends have eaten 6750 meals by themselves.

George gamow's "From One to Infinity" Fruit and Wheat Culture, 20 19.9.

What's more, he is also a "soul painter". For some abstract concepts that are difficult to understand, he always draws an illustration with a little American cold humor.

For example, the following figure is used to illustrate how to display three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional space.

4.

Seventy years later, although many conclusions and laws in the book have been corrected by newer research, From One to Infinite has never been out of date. I think there is another very important reason-Gamov's writing style of mathematical thinking.

Whether it is the first number or the last infinite universe, he always uses mathematical analysis to lead readers to discover universally applicable objective laws.

I think this way of thinking and logic is more important than knowledge, and it may also be the eternal key to this book.

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