Carl Weizsäcker discusses George Gamow, Hans Bethe, and the carbon cycle.

Hufbauer:

Then in May or June of ’38, Gamow visited you in Berlin.

Weizsäcker:

Yes. Yes.

Hufbauer:

Can you recall any details from this visit? He would have Have been able at that time to have reported some of the developments in America — the conference that there had been in America in March — also, some of the details maybe of Bethe’s work, though I’m not clear about that.

Weizsäcker:

The things I remember are quite limited. At that time I had the idea of the carbon cycle, and I felt that this was the solution, and Gamow came and told me that Bethe had probably found the solution to the problem and that it was the carbon cycle. Then I said, "Well, I think he's right, I found it too," and my paper at that time was perhaps already in print, I don't remember. In any case, I felt that I had already done it and submitted it for print. But on the other hand, it was very good if Bethe had done it too, and it was not the first time I had done something parallel with Bethe. It had been the same thing with the mass-defect formula for the atomic nuclei, of which I spoke before.

Then I felt that at least he should tell Bethe that I had done it. And I might even have written a letter to Bethe about that, But since Bethe didn’t have it, perhaps I didn’t. Perhaps I asked Gamow to tell him.

Then I was a little bit disturbed by the fact that Bethe’s paper didn't appear earlier — because it was delayed, because it was submitted for some Festschrift — because that gave the impression that I had true priority, while I would say that we were just independent.