GEORGE GAMOW

My father was a teacher of the Russian language and literature in high school.

It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man!

When, in school, they were teaching algebra, I was studying differential equations at home.

All kinds of physical considerations become senseless when we try to apply them to distances smaller than 10 -13 centimeter.

Whereas all humans have approximately the same life expectancy the life expectancy of stars varies as much as from that of a butterfly to that of an elephant.

Much later, when I discussed the problem with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder he ever made in his life. But this "blunder," rejected by Einstein, is still sometimes used by cosmologists even today, and the cosmological constant denoted by the Greek letter Λ rears its ugly head again and again and again.

So I am just sitting and waiting, listening, and if something exciting comes, I just jump in.

My mother was the only girl in the family. One brother was District Attorney of Odessa or something; another was teaching classical languages; another was a captain of a battleship of the Black Navy; and still another was a chemist and icthyologist.

It took less than an hour to make the atoms, a few hundred million years to make the stars and planets, but five billion years to make man!

My mother was the only girl in the family. One brother was District Attorney of Odessa or something; another was teaching classical languages; another was a captain of a battleship of the Black Navy; and still another was a chemist and icthyologist.

When, in school, they were teaching algebra, I was studying differential equations at home.

I learned Einstein's theory of relativity when I was still in school. I simply got interested.

All kinds of physical considerations become senseless when we try to apply them to distances smaller than 10 -13 centimeter.

My father was a teacher of the Russian language and literature in high school.

If the expansion of the space of the universe is uniform in all directions, an observer located in anyone of the galaxies will see all other galaxies running away from him at velocities proportional to their distances from the observer.

Much later, when I was discussing cosmological problems with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder he ever made in his life.

Much later, when I discussed the problem with Einstein, he remarked that the introduction of the cosmological term was the biggest blunder he ever made in his life. But this "blunder," rejected by Einstein, is still sometimes used by cosmologists even today, and the cosmological constant denoted by the Greek letter Λ rears its ugly head again and again and again.

Whereas all humans have approximately the same life expectancy the life expectancy of stars varies as much as from that of a butterfly to that of an elephant.

So I am just sitting and waiting, listening, and if something exciting comes, I just jump in.