Forced to Choose

et al., Roald Hoffmann

R. IGOR GAMOW

University of Colorado chemical engineering professor, mountain climber, inventor of the life-saving altitude-sickness device the Gamow Bag and son of Big Bang theorist George Gamow

Father dedicated his most popular book, One, Two, Three . . . Infinity, to "his son Igor who wants to be a cowboy." In later editions he changed "wants" to "wanted," but perhaps that was only wishful thinking on his part? Well this "want" came straight from the books of Will James. His best known work, Smokey, was about a horse. For almost 20 years I have had at home a snow white Arabian stallion, Pegasus, who is and will always be a reincarnation of Smokey! So you have it. In later years I read Nikos Kazantzakis, and although his Zorba the Greek inspired me, his major work, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, sent me down some new and magical pathways. Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics introduced me to Benjamin Hoff's Tao of Pooh, which always accompanies me on my many trips to the Himalayas. The last book I read, again in Nepal, was Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, published in 1932. How did he know? I also need to add: I am a great fan of Freeman Dyson, and I use his Imagined Worlds as a text both for my students and myself.