Books by George Gamow

Since his first appearance over sixty years ago, Mr Tompkins has become known and loved by many thousands of readers as the bank clerk whose fantastic dreams and adventures lead him into a world inside the atom. George Gamow's classic provides a delightful explanation of the central concepts in modern physics, from atomic structure to relativity, and quantum theory to fusion and fission. Roger Penrose's foreword introduces Mr Tompkins to a new generation of readers and reviews his adventures in light of recent developments in physics.

Since the death of the author in 1968, the Mr Tompkins series has gone through a number of reincarnations. The latest reincarnation, The Adventures of Mr Tompkins (www.theadventuresofmrtompkins.com), has Mr Tompkins visiting physicists, whilst he visits a biologist in Mr. Tompkins Learns the Facts of Life.

First published in 1945, in the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this book offers a unique account of the problem of atomic energy and the underlying principles of radioactive decay. Written by the pre-eminent physicist George Gamow, it was designed to give a complete picture of atomic energy.

Mr Tompkins is back! The mild-mannered bank clerk with the short attention span and vivid imagination has inspired, charmed and informed young and old alike since the publication of the hugely successful Mr Tompkins in Paperback (by George Gamow) in 1965. In this 1999 book, he returns in a new set of adventures exploring the extreme edges of the universe - the smallest, the largest, the fastest, the farthest. Through his experiences and his dreams, you are there at Mr Tompkins' shoulder watching and taking part in the merry dance of cosmic mysteries: Einstein's relativity, bizarre effects near light-speed, the birth and death of the universe, black holes, quarks, space warps and antimatter, the fuzzy world of the quantum, and that ultimate cosmic mystery of all ... love. This text is revised, updated and expanded by best-selling popular-science author Russell Stannard (who wrote the much-acclaimed Uncle Albert series of books for children).