Constitution of Atomic Nuclei and Radioactivity.

the first textbook of nuclear physics

First edition, first impression of the author's first published book and the first textbook of modern nuclear physics (Kragh, Quantum Generations, p. 180). A very attractive copy in the rare dust jacket.

George Gamow (1904-1968) established himself as one of the leaders in the field of nuclear physics before the age of 25. Born in Odessa, he studied there and at the University of Leningrad, and then 'attended summer school in Göttingen, Germany, at that time the hotbed of the new quantum theory. There he succeeded in explaining nuclear radioactivity as a quantum-mechanical phenomenon. That insight explained experimental findings of scientists at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, led by the titan of nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford. Gamow went on to apply quantum mechanics to a general theory of low-energy nuclear reactions, essentially founding that field of study'. This led to the offer of a fellowship in Copenhagen by Niels Bohr, and it was there that Gamow 'invented what was to become known as the liquid-drop model of the nucleus. Later, Bohr and the American theorist John A. Wheeler used the model to explain the phenomenon of nuclear fission' (Harper, George Washington University Magazine, Spring 2000).

First edition, first impression; 8vo; folding chart, graphs and diagrams throughout the text, partial toning to endpapers and half title, contents faintly toned; original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, spine slightly rolled, cloth fresh, a very good copy in the tanned jacket that is a little rubbed and creased at the extremities; 114pp.