- Mr Tompkins in Wonderland, 1940
- Mr Tompkins explores the atom, 1944
- Mr Tompkins learns the facts of life, 1953
- Mr Tompkins inside himself: Adventures in the new biology, 1967
Il primo racconto inizia con il signor Tompkins intento a leggere un articolo sulla teoria della relatività, lettura avvincente ma difficoltosa, motivo per cui il povero impiegato di banca crolla in un sonno profondo che lo porterà in un mondo alternativo e onirico dove la velocità della luce è di appena 30 chilometri all'ora...
"In the winter of 1938 I wrote a short, scientifically fantastic story (not a science fiction story) in which I tried to explain to the layman the basic ideas of the theory of curvature of space and the expanding universe. I decided to do this by
exaggerating the actually existing relativistic phenomena to such an extent that they
could easily be observed by the hero of the story, C. G. H. Tompkins, a bank clerk
interested in modern science.
I sent the manuscript to Harpers Magazine and, like all beginning authors, got
it back with a rejection slip. The other half-a-dozen magazines which I tried
followed suit. So I put the manuscript in a drawer of my desk and forgot about it.
During the summer of the same year, I attended the International Conference of
Theoretical Physics, organized by the League of Nations in Warsaw. 1 was chatting
over a glass of excellent Polish mind with my old friend Sir Charles Darwin, the
grandson of Charles (The Origin of Species) Darwin, and the conversation turned to
the popularization of science.
.....
C. G. H: The initials of Mr Tompkins originated from three fundamental physical
constants: the velocity of light c; the gravitational constant G; and the quantum
constant A, which have to be changed by immensely large factors in order to make
their effect easily noticeable by the man on the street." (Prefazione di Mr Tompkins in Wonderland)
From Introducing Hawking: Hoyle and big bang
Per puro caso ho trovato un pdf che comprende i primi due racconti più diverse bellissime illustrazioni e note aggiuntive. Poi vi consiglio di andare a visitare questo sito: Cosmic Journey, dedicato alla storia della cosmologia e di recarvi qui, per ripercorrere i momenti clou della nascita della teoria cosmologica più accreditata, scoprire l'esistenza dell'Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper (in seguito divenuto Alpher, Bethe, Gamow and Delter), frutto di uno scherzo alquanto originale e ritrovare personaggi di una certa importanza come Fred Hoyle, Tommy Gold, Martin Ryle e Robert Dicke.Immagine tratta da "A Gamow Joke"