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When
Alpher and Gamow prepared a paper on the subject, Gamow mischievously
added the name of the noted nuclear physicist Hans Bethe to the list of
authors so it would be called the “Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper,”
mimicking the “alpha-beta-gamma” of the first letters of the
Greek alphabet. Unknown to Gamow, Bethe was a reviewer for the journal
to which Gamow submitted the article. Bethe took it in good humor, later
explaining, “I felt at the time that it was rather a nice joke,
and that the paper had a chance of being correct, so that I did not mind
my name being added to it.” Gamow also urged Herman to change his
name to Delter to match delta, the next letter in the Greek alphabet.
Despite Herman’s refusal, in a paper in a major scientific journal
Gamow referred to “the neutron-capture theory...developed by Alpher,
Bethe, Gamow and Delter.” Not least among his notable characteristics
was his sense of humor.
A
1949 composite picture with Robert Herman on the left, Ralph Alpher
on the right, and George Gamow in the center, as the genie coming
out of the bottle of "Ylem," the initial cosmic mixture
of protons, neutrons, and electrons from which the elements supposedly
were formed. |
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