An overflow audience of scientist, professors, and students jammed Corcoran 39 Friday night to hear Dr. George Gamow, visiting professor of Nuclear Physics, deliver his first lecture in a series to be given on modern physics.

Dr. Gamow gave a demonstration of the "principle of uncertainty".

"Because Newtonian mechanics, built around the law of gravity, have failed to explain the behavior of the atom," Dr. Gamow said, "it has been necessary to construct an entire new mechanics in which position of a moving object can only be approximated according to the laws of chance."

Corcoran 39 was not large enough to seat the crowd, including scientists from the District of Columbia, which wished to hear Dr. Gamow in his Washington debut. Extra chairs failed to accommodate all, and many were forced to sit on the floor.

Dr. Gamow is the internationally known authority on nuclear physics.

Last night’s lecture on "The Principle of Uncertainty" was designed in such a way that laymen as well as physicist could understand a description of the theory of wave mechanics, which has done much to explain the structure of the atom.

The schedule for the remaining lectures in the series is a follows: March 8, "The Atomic Nucleus"; March 22: "Artificial Transformation of Elements"; April 5: "The Structure of Stars"; May 3: "Cosmic Rays".