Editing George Gamow (section)

== Personal life ==
Gamow had a son, [[Igor Gamow]], with his first wife Rho in 1935. Their son later became a professor of [[microbiology]] at the [[University of Colorado]], as well as an inventor.

In 1956, Gamow divorced his wife Rho. In 1958 he married [[Barbara Perkins Gamow|Barbara Perkins]], an editor for one of his publishers.

Gamow was a well-known prankster, who delighted in practical jokes and humorous twists embedded in serious scientific publications.<ref name="Antunes">{{cite web |last1=Antunes |first1=Alex "Sandy" |title=8 Great Scientist Pranksters |url=https://www.science20.com/daytime_astronomer/8_great_scientist_pranksters-77733 |website=Science 2.0 |access-date=2020-04-04 |language=en |date=27 August 2014}}</ref><ref name="Segre">{{cite journal |last1=Segrè |first1=Gino |title=The Big Bang and the genetic code |journal=Nature |pages=437 |language=en |doi=10.1038/35006517 |date=March 2000|volume=404 |issue=6777 |pmid=10761891 |s2cid=205005362 |doi-access=free }}</ref> His most famous prank was the pioneering [[Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper]] (1948), which was serious in its style and content. However, Gamow could not resist adding his colleague [[Hans Bethe]] to the list of authors, as a [[pun]] on the first three letters of the [[Greek alphabet]].<ref name="Antunes"/><ref name="Falk">{{cite web |last1=Falk |first1=Dan |title=The Secret Jokes Scientists Slip Into Research Papers Are Delightfully Nerdy—Here's Proof |url=https://slate.com/technology/2016/05/the-best-jokes-scientists-sneak-into-the-research-papers-to-make-them-slightly-less-boring.html |website=Slate Magazine |access-date=2020-04-04 |language=en |date=19 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="Segre"/>

Gamow was an atheist.<ref>ANDERSON: "What, uh, one thing I'm fascinated with is, of course, George Gamow left the university in '59 [1956], and Edward Teller had left in 1946 [1945] and went to the University of Chicago. But do you have any recollections of maybe some of the, anything between Dr. Marvin and Dr. Gamow, as far as, just before he left and went to Colorado?" NAESER: "Ah, no, I don't know of any. I know Gamow made no, never did hide the fact that he was an atheist, but whether that came into the picture, I don't know. But the story around the university was that Gamow and Mrs. Gamow were divorced, but they were in the same social circles some of the time, he thought it was better to get out of Washington. That's why he went to Ohio State." ''The George Washington University and Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia'', [http://encyclopedia.gwu.edu/gwencyclopedia/index.php?title=Gamow%2C_George_and_Edward_Teller Gamow, George and Edward Teller] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613094539/http://encyclopedia.gwu.edu/gwencyclopedia/index.php?title=Gamow%2C_George_and_Edward_Teller |date=2010-06-13 }}, October 23, 1996.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Big Bang Is Bunk|url=http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2011/BigBang_Bunk.pdf|publisher=21st Century Science Associates.|access-date=28 May 2012|author=Grote Reber|page=44|quote=After the initial mathematical work on relativity theory had been done, the Big Bang theory itself was invented by a Belgian priest, Georges Lemaître, improved upon by an avowed atheist, George Gamow, and is now all but universally accepted by those who hold advanced degrees in astronomy and the physical sciences, despite its obvious absurdity.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Big Bang|date=2010|publisher=HarperCollins UK|isbn=9780007375509|author=Simon Singh|quote=Surprisingly, the atheist George Gamow enjoyed the Papal attention given to his field of research.|title-link=Big Bang (Singh book)|author-link=Simon Singh}}</ref>