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The stars in their courses
Classic science essays by the master
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
4 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,353 books28k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 10, 2014
I'll admit it, I haven't read much Asimov. After reading The Last Question, I was totally blown away. After reading Foundation #1 I was super disappointed by both style and characters. So I came to The Stars in their Courses with some ambivalence and no expectations.
Had I read it in a different mood, I might have not liked it as much, but as it was I picked up Stars on a breezy Sunday afternoon and found it humbling, inspiring, interesting, fun and moving all at once. A wonderful light read that covers a lot of ground.
Totally just left this review because the book seems underrated here and I wanted to back up the 5-stars.
Had I read it in a different mood, I might have not liked it as much, but as it was I picked up Stars on a breezy Sunday afternoon and found it humbling, inspiring, interesting, fun and moving all at once. A wonderful light read that covers a lot of ground.
Totally just left this review because the book seems underrated here and I wanted to back up the 5-stars.
October 14, 2022
'Every time the human population increases in mass by one ton, the mass of non-human animal life must decrease by one ton to make room' (Ace Books, 1972, p.205).
'The United Nations intends to mark the birth of the eight billionth person on 15 November 2022' - in a month's time. ("World population to reach 8 billion this year, as growth rate slows", UN News, 11 July 2022; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_p...).
Asimov's writing is like a level playing field for me; it is from his 1950s sci-fi that I view, as a benchmark, all other science fiction, and this is the first time that I've read any of his science (fact) essays, and since he was known as a 'Great Explainer' of science, it was interesting to see (in part) how he got that reputation. Needless to say, he loses none of his incisive sense of humour in writing about real science. His anecdotal introductions tend to set the tone for the essays by which we slip into that sense of humour and willingly nod in agreement when he both disparages fools and lauds ingenious scientific forefathers. The essays collectively demonstrate a knowledge of history as well as astronomy, physics and chemistry, and his writing is always entertaining. I enjoyed these essays which built from Newton's f=ma to more complex equations - and the maths involved was clearly delineated at a pace I could (just) follow as a layman.
A collection of 17 essays of approx. 12 pages each, on the very small to the very large, most of them published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1969 and 1970 when a novel cost less than a dollar (10/-), Jupiter had 'twelve known satellites' (p.69; it is now [2022] 80), the edge of the universe was estimated as 12.5 billion light-years distant (p.126; now ~13.787 bn ±0.020), the world's population was 3.5 billion (p.196; it is now [2022] 8 billion [7.975]), and Asimov (1920-1992) was around 50 (although, as he maintains frequently, over 30) - and writing just after NASA landed men on the Moon. Each essay is like a mini adventure, and a substitute for attending a talk or lecture, or sitting across the table listening to him ruminate, as many have wished for and few have been favoured with. It's the way he talks as much as what he talks about.
Asimov's eponymous essay, 'The Stars in Their Courses', is a phrase taken from the Song of Deborah in Judges (5:20):
'They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera' (p.21).
It doesn't matter who was fighting, but the phrase titles his first essay in his 'Astronomy' section, where he looks at the history of astronomy in early astrology. Asimov doesn't pull his punches: he knows in no uncertain terms that modern-day astrologers demonstrate 'phony intellectualism' (p.13). But the origins of astrology were the workings-out of scientific method, and were relevant to the understanding of astronomy up until Copernicus in the 16th century (the heliocentric view of the Solar System) and the Age of Enlightenment from the 17th century (Newton et al).
As he moves through 'Astronomy' you see that his favourite theme is to knock, criticise or lambast certain 'cultural' figures who have treated astronomy unscientifically. In 'The Lunar Honor-roll' he disses Battista Riccioli, an advocate of the Ptolemaian, or rather, a Tychonic, modified Ptolemaian Earth-centric view of the Solar System, who in 1651 produced his New Almagest, a map of the Moon (selenography). He named the vast circles of the darker plains as 'seas' and the smaller 'bays', and the craters. He used Latin nomenclature and named the larger for scientists with whom his astronomic symapthies lay (Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy). This is all very entertaining and only involved a little gentle dissing.
By the time we come to 'Worlds in Confusion', Asimov lets fly. His target is Immanuel Velikovsky, who in 1950 published Worlds in Collision, a book that selects historical events and astronomical data and uses myth and legend to prove the truth of the catastrophes in The Bible - which became a best seller. Asimov selects three or four such proofs and disproves them succinctly, gradually showing Velikovsky's theories as foolish (although, in today's facile capitalist terms, Velikovsky was clearly not a fool, writing a bestseller). Here Asimov enjoys his work, but also you do too. It's clear by now that he doesn't have a lot of respect for the humanities, especially English Literature scholars and teachers - because of their seeming lack of adherence to science.
'Two At a Time' is a discussion of the Three-Body Problem of gravity, or rather, gravitational effects between two bodies. Asimov starts with two particles, moving on to planetary and moon bodies, and the mass of Jupiter. At the time of writing (July 1969), Jupiter had only 12 known satellites (p.69); it is now (2022) 80. But the measurements of those (here, Earth-relative) masses are remarkably accurate to today's know figures: Jupiter is given as 318 times the mass of the Earth (317.88), and Venus 0.81485. In this essay, Asimov flies, making connections the writing of which can only be gawped at; where would the average person start?
In 'On Throwing a Ball', Asimov takes Newton's 2nd Law of Motion (f=ma) and looks at developing a calculation for gravitational force. I confess even this basic maths (of simultaneous equations) is now beyond me (if I ever understood it), but he is patient, and I managed to follow along. The figures he uses (the Moon's Earth-relative mass of 0.0124, for example) tally with current values. By 'The Man Who Massed the Earth', his larger figures are more general (the Sun is 330,000 times as massive as the Earth [p.88], where it is 332,950). But let's not split hairs. Asimov is teaching basic physics and astronomy to one who has learned all this in the past, but forgotten. The mere fact that he has not (or probably hasn't) is impressive enough. But it is not just his memory; his writing is both entertaining and educative, anecdotal yet factual, historical yet current. Since few of these figures (except the preponderance now of lots more tiny satellites of the major planets) vary from today's, their utility is in the didactic process.
In 'The Luxon Wall' Asimov proves (through the Lorentz equation) that nothing with mass (rest mass or proper mass) can travel faster than the speed of light, and that photons can because they are massless. He extends his discussion to the proposed tachyon, and a theoretical superluminal tachyon universe, giving a succinct description of the hyperspace faster-than-light travel of spaceships in his science fiction. Quite how a ship drops into hyperspace, though, is the mystery. I followed the maths on faith, but was fired by its disappearance into hyperspace.
'Playing the Game' means observing the accrued knowledge and rules of science, and Asimov gives us a potted history of the Doppler effect and red shift. This measure is used in 'The Distance of Far' to discuss the observation in the '20s that external galaxies (except Andromeda) are moving away from each other, and the further away, the faster (leading to the modern understanding of an 'expanding universe' [p.127] supported by the WMAP [2003] of the cosmic microwave background radiation [1965]).
The three essays in 'Chemistry', 'The Multiplying Elements', 'Bridging the Gaps' and 'The Nobel Prize That Wasn't', look at the periodic table and some of the history of discovery of the later rare earth metals and Mendeleev's work in trying to find patterns of relation between the then known elements and predictions of missing ones. If it serves a main purpose, it gets you to look at what has become an elegant and interesting table in science. Asimov's tables are a little crude, and his knowledge far exceeds most of ours, so that modern table is essential in following him. If anything, this section, Asimov's core strength, is the weakest section of this collection. Until that last essay: Asimov pays tribute to a brilliant physicist in his early twenties - and it makes for great copy.
'The Fateful Lightning' is an essay that takes a retrograde step considering the advances Asimov has made progressively through this collection in the advances of science. It is largely anecdotal, often repetitious, and doesn't display that clarity of argument hitherto in his better essays. It is, however, a prerequisite step to his argument in 'The Sin of the Scientist', which looks at when the first concrete incidence of science (the scientific community or an individual scientist) enacted a sin ('a disobedience towards a moral law', pp.183-4, with subsequent qualifications) against humankind, in the knowledge that the consequence would be evil rather than good. This is a well-argued and interesting argument, since there is within most of us a nebulous notion that science had 'got out of hand' (p.190) at some point in the last century or so - that it is not adequately controllable (the world wars, the nuclear bomb, over-population, pollution, biological warfare).
After an idyllic portraiture of his lifestyle, Asimov addresses the problem of population in 'The Power Of Progression' - or rather, over-population. En route via Trantor (the Earth entirely covered by the expanding population at the density of Manhattan at lunch time [1969]), Asimov provides an equation for the continually increasing population (at the then rate of doubling every 47 years). Current [2022] projections of population increase put it at 10 billion by 2057. Asimov uses his then figure of 3.5 bn to project a population of 50 bn by 2151 (p.201) and a fully 'Manhattanized' Earth by 2555 (p.202) - without adjusting for population doubling. Whichever perspective you take, the picture is beyond gloomy.
In 'My Planet, 'Tis of Thee‒', Asimov's curtain-call of sanity, Isaac Asimov looks to 2020 (now!), in his estimation of the proliferation of the problems human civilisation faces. It is a clarion call - made in 1970 - for humankind to get working on solving our problems as a global nation, not as a sect or nation or political or economic doctrine, but as a human civilisation (p.207). In 1970, Asimov wrote: 'our problems are now planetary, and our solutions will have to be planetary too' (p.211).
We have already seen these past 15 years (post-2008) of economic depression that there is no such thing as a sustained 'growing economy' (p.208); there are fewer jobs, with insufficient benefits for the unemployed (to pay bills and food and mortgage, to retain their cars and homes), for even the more advanced societies; there are dwindling resources to be shared; there has been an energy crisis ongoing since the '70s; there is an energy crisis now in Europe because of a war between two neighbouring states (Russia's aggression on Ukraine, 2022); and while the growth rate is slowing (UN figures), the mortality rate isn't keeping pace (the mortality rate decreased from 1950 to 2005, when it plateaued out to date).
If reading this fascinating work, now outdated in most arenas since 1970, yet still current enough to be relevant, brings anything home, it's Isaac Asimov's ability to write a good story, drive his point home convincingly, and ring out as a voice of sanity. While retaining his sense of humour through to his sociological essays, those final few increasingly become relevant to day-to-day living today, as they become decidedly realistic/pessimistic. Like most of us, I will turn to a fantasy (or science fiction) book next to relieve the stress of resurgent realisation that our planet IS on the brink of disaster, considering most significant indicators (population, environmental pollution, global warming, endangered species...).
If anything, I pity my succeeding generation, and theirs, for having to live through worsening conditions that competing disunited nation-state governments have been unwilling to adequately tackle together. While people's voting through their wallets helps (increase in purchase of electric cars over fossil-fuel vehicles, buying fewer single-plastics-use products), it is only through governmental initiatives, and united governmental implementations, that significant change can be effected globally, civilisationally. Yet I know that I am whispering in a loud wind, effete and foolish as the rest. Asimov isn't.
'The United Nations intends to mark the birth of the eight billionth person on 15 November 2022' - in a month's time. ("World population to reach 8 billion this year, as growth rate slows", UN News, 11 July 2022; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_p...).
Asimov's writing is like a level playing field for me; it is from his 1950s sci-fi that I view, as a benchmark, all other science fiction, and this is the first time that I've read any of his science (fact) essays, and since he was known as a 'Great Explainer' of science, it was interesting to see (in part) how he got that reputation. Needless to say, he loses none of his incisive sense of humour in writing about real science. His anecdotal introductions tend to set the tone for the essays by which we slip into that sense of humour and willingly nod in agreement when he both disparages fools and lauds ingenious scientific forefathers. The essays collectively demonstrate a knowledge of history as well as astronomy, physics and chemistry, and his writing is always entertaining. I enjoyed these essays which built from Newton's f=ma to more complex equations - and the maths involved was clearly delineated at a pace I could (just) follow as a layman.
A collection of 17 essays of approx. 12 pages each, on the very small to the very large, most of them published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1969 and 1970 when a novel cost less than a dollar (10/-), Jupiter had 'twelve known satellites' (p.69; it is now [2022] 80), the edge of the universe was estimated as 12.5 billion light-years distant (p.126; now ~13.787 bn ±0.020), the world's population was 3.5 billion (p.196; it is now [2022] 8 billion [7.975]), and Asimov (1920-1992) was around 50 (although, as he maintains frequently, over 30) - and writing just after NASA landed men on the Moon. Each essay is like a mini adventure, and a substitute for attending a talk or lecture, or sitting across the table listening to him ruminate, as many have wished for and few have been favoured with. It's the way he talks as much as what he talks about.
Asimov's eponymous essay, 'The Stars in Their Courses', is a phrase taken from the Song of Deborah in Judges (5:20):
'They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera' (p.21).
It doesn't matter who was fighting, but the phrase titles his first essay in his 'Astronomy' section, where he looks at the history of astronomy in early astrology. Asimov doesn't pull his punches: he knows in no uncertain terms that modern-day astrologers demonstrate 'phony intellectualism' (p.13). But the origins of astrology were the workings-out of scientific method, and were relevant to the understanding of astronomy up until Copernicus in the 16th century (the heliocentric view of the Solar System) and the Age of Enlightenment from the 17th century (Newton et al).
As he moves through 'Astronomy' you see that his favourite theme is to knock, criticise or lambast certain 'cultural' figures who have treated astronomy unscientifically. In 'The Lunar Honor-roll' he disses Battista Riccioli, an advocate of the Ptolemaian, or rather, a Tychonic, modified Ptolemaian Earth-centric view of the Solar System, who in 1651 produced his New Almagest, a map of the Moon (selenography). He named the vast circles of the darker plains as 'seas' and the smaller 'bays', and the craters. He used Latin nomenclature and named the larger for scientists with whom his astronomic symapthies lay (Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy). This is all very entertaining and only involved a little gentle dissing.
By the time we come to 'Worlds in Confusion', Asimov lets fly. His target is Immanuel Velikovsky, who in 1950 published Worlds in Collision, a book that selects historical events and astronomical data and uses myth and legend to prove the truth of the catastrophes in The Bible - which became a best seller. Asimov selects three or four such proofs and disproves them succinctly, gradually showing Velikovsky's theories as foolish (although, in today's facile capitalist terms, Velikovsky was clearly not a fool, writing a bestseller). Here Asimov enjoys his work, but also you do too. It's clear by now that he doesn't have a lot of respect for the humanities, especially English Literature scholars and teachers - because of their seeming lack of adherence to science.
'Two At a Time' is a discussion of the Three-Body Problem of gravity, or rather, gravitational effects between two bodies. Asimov starts with two particles, moving on to planetary and moon bodies, and the mass of Jupiter. At the time of writing (July 1969), Jupiter had only 12 known satellites (p.69); it is now (2022) 80. But the measurements of those (here, Earth-relative) masses are remarkably accurate to today's know figures: Jupiter is given as 318 times the mass of the Earth (317.88), and Venus 0.81485. In this essay, Asimov flies, making connections the writing of which can only be gawped at; where would the average person start?
In 'On Throwing a Ball', Asimov takes Newton's 2nd Law of Motion (f=ma) and looks at developing a calculation for gravitational force. I confess even this basic maths (of simultaneous equations) is now beyond me (if I ever understood it), but he is patient, and I managed to follow along. The figures he uses (the Moon's Earth-relative mass of 0.0124, for example) tally with current values. By 'The Man Who Massed the Earth', his larger figures are more general (the Sun is 330,000 times as massive as the Earth [p.88], where it is 332,950). But let's not split hairs. Asimov is teaching basic physics and astronomy to one who has learned all this in the past, but forgotten. The mere fact that he has not (or probably hasn't) is impressive enough. But it is not just his memory; his writing is both entertaining and educative, anecdotal yet factual, historical yet current. Since few of these figures (except the preponderance now of lots more tiny satellites of the major planets) vary from today's, their utility is in the didactic process.
In 'The Luxon Wall' Asimov proves (through the Lorentz equation) that nothing with mass (rest mass or proper mass) can travel faster than the speed of light, and that photons can because they are massless. He extends his discussion to the proposed tachyon, and a theoretical superluminal tachyon universe, giving a succinct description of the hyperspace faster-than-light travel of spaceships in his science fiction. Quite how a ship drops into hyperspace, though, is the mystery. I followed the maths on faith, but was fired by its disappearance into hyperspace.
'Playing the Game' means observing the accrued knowledge and rules of science, and Asimov gives us a potted history of the Doppler effect and red shift. This measure is used in 'The Distance of Far' to discuss the observation in the '20s that external galaxies (except Andromeda) are moving away from each other, and the further away, the faster (leading to the modern understanding of an 'expanding universe' [p.127] supported by the WMAP [2003] of the cosmic microwave background radiation [1965]).
The three essays in 'Chemistry', 'The Multiplying Elements', 'Bridging the Gaps' and 'The Nobel Prize That Wasn't', look at the periodic table and some of the history of discovery of the later rare earth metals and Mendeleev's work in trying to find patterns of relation between the then known elements and predictions of missing ones. If it serves a main purpose, it gets you to look at what has become an elegant and interesting table in science. Asimov's tables are a little crude, and his knowledge far exceeds most of ours, so that modern table is essential in following him. If anything, this section, Asimov's core strength, is the weakest section of this collection. Until that last essay: Asimov pays tribute to a brilliant physicist in his early twenties - and it makes for great copy.
'The Fateful Lightning' is an essay that takes a retrograde step considering the advances Asimov has made progressively through this collection in the advances of science. It is largely anecdotal, often repetitious, and doesn't display that clarity of argument hitherto in his better essays. It is, however, a prerequisite step to his argument in 'The Sin of the Scientist', which looks at when the first concrete incidence of science (the scientific community or an individual scientist) enacted a sin ('a disobedience towards a moral law', pp.183-4, with subsequent qualifications) against humankind, in the knowledge that the consequence would be evil rather than good. This is a well-argued and interesting argument, since there is within most of us a nebulous notion that science had 'got out of hand' (p.190) at some point in the last century or so - that it is not adequately controllable (the world wars, the nuclear bomb, over-population, pollution, biological warfare).
After an idyllic portraiture of his lifestyle, Asimov addresses the problem of population in 'The Power Of Progression' - or rather, over-population. En route via Trantor (the Earth entirely covered by the expanding population at the density of Manhattan at lunch time [1969]), Asimov provides an equation for the continually increasing population (at the then rate of doubling every 47 years). Current [2022] projections of population increase put it at 10 billion by 2057. Asimov uses his then figure of 3.5 bn to project a population of 50 bn by 2151 (p.201) and a fully 'Manhattanized' Earth by 2555 (p.202) - without adjusting for population doubling. Whichever perspective you take, the picture is beyond gloomy.
In 'My Planet, 'Tis of Thee‒', Asimov's curtain-call of sanity, Isaac Asimov looks to 2020 (now!), in his estimation of the proliferation of the problems human civilisation faces. It is a clarion call - made in 1970 - for humankind to get working on solving our problems as a global nation, not as a sect or nation or political or economic doctrine, but as a human civilisation (p.207). In 1970, Asimov wrote: 'our problems are now planetary, and our solutions will have to be planetary too' (p.211).
We have already seen these past 15 years (post-2008) of economic depression that there is no such thing as a sustained 'growing economy' (p.208); there are fewer jobs, with insufficient benefits for the unemployed (to pay bills and food and mortgage, to retain their cars and homes), for even the more advanced societies; there are dwindling resources to be shared; there has been an energy crisis ongoing since the '70s; there is an energy crisis now in Europe because of a war between two neighbouring states (Russia's aggression on Ukraine, 2022); and while the growth rate is slowing (UN figures), the mortality rate isn't keeping pace (the mortality rate decreased from 1950 to 2005, when it plateaued out to date).
If reading this fascinating work, now outdated in most arenas since 1970, yet still current enough to be relevant, brings anything home, it's Isaac Asimov's ability to write a good story, drive his point home convincingly, and ring out as a voice of sanity. While retaining his sense of humour through to his sociological essays, those final few increasingly become relevant to day-to-day living today, as they become decidedly realistic/pessimistic. Like most of us, I will turn to a fantasy (or science fiction) book next to relieve the stress of resurgent realisation that our planet IS on the brink of disaster, considering most significant indicators (population, environmental pollution, global warming, endangered species...).
If anything, I pity my succeeding generation, and theirs, for having to live through worsening conditions that competing disunited nation-state governments have been unwilling to adequately tackle together. While people's voting through their wallets helps (increase in purchase of electric cars over fossil-fuel vehicles, buying fewer single-plastics-use products), it is only through governmental initiatives, and united governmental implementations, that significant change can be effected globally, civilisationally. Yet I know that I am whispering in a loud wind, effete and foolish as the rest. Asimov isn't.
January 15, 2016
Genuinely interesting science and written in a way that is understandable. Its a must for the moon landing generation, although it might be a little dated.
February 11, 2021
This book is interesting because it was written by Isaac Asimov. Oh, you wanted more? Well, okay then.
I’ve always found Asimov’s non-fiction to be fascinating, although admittedly my exposure has been limited to the introductory essays for some of his short stories. Here, I got to see him in full swing, and the INTJ master race vibes are strong here. He’s a great example of the personality type, and I can say that because I’m the same type as him.
The Stars in Their Courses collects together a bunch of Asimov’s essays on a variety of different scientific topics, starting out by decimating people who believe in astrology and moving on from there. He’s a convincing writer, mostly because he knew what he was talking about, and I also thought it was cool that he was a roughly similar age to me when he was pulling the book together.
Overall, this isn’t going to be one to read if you’re not too interested in science and stuff or if you don’t like to read non-fiction, but if you’re a voracious Asimov fan or you have a passing interest in chemistry and physics, you’re in for a lot of fun.
I’ve always found Asimov’s non-fiction to be fascinating, although admittedly my exposure has been limited to the introductory essays for some of his short stories. Here, I got to see him in full swing, and the INTJ master race vibes are strong here. He’s a great example of the personality type, and I can say that because I’m the same type as him.
The Stars in Their Courses collects together a bunch of Asimov’s essays on a variety of different scientific topics, starting out by decimating people who believe in astrology and moving on from there. He’s a convincing writer, mostly because he knew what he was talking about, and I also thought it was cool that he was a roughly similar age to me when he was pulling the book together.
Overall, this isn’t going to be one to read if you’re not too interested in science and stuff or if you don’t like to read non-fiction, but if you’re a voracious Asimov fan or you have a passing interest in chemistry and physics, you’re in for a lot of fun.
September 29, 2024
A good little introduction to Asimov. Look forward to reading more of his works. Certainly a product of its time in places with the fatalism surrounding global annihilation or our prospects as a species, but still holds up in many regards if you look at, y'know, *gestures vaguely at the current geopolitical and economic crisis*
June 15, 2022
Three and a half stars: Asimov's writing isn't stuffy and he makes these normally eggheaded subjects interesting. His touch of humor helps make the essays accessible and fun to read even if you couldn't care less about how the elements of the periodic table got their names.
December 24, 2021
-Gregory Kerkman
July 9, 2007
Please see my review of X Stands for Unknown ([http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98...]) for general comments on Isaac Asimov's science essays.
The Stars in Their Courses anthologizes Isaac Asimov's science fact articles in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from May 1969 through September 1970. A recurring theme in this collection is the contrast between the process of legitimate scientific investigation and faith-based pseudoscience. This footnote, in the eponymous essay, particularly stands out: "If the early astrologers argued in this fashion [i.e., trying to work out the laws that governed natural phenomena], they were imbued with the spirit of science and I honor them. No scholar can be maligned for being wrong in the light of the knowledge of a later period. If he strives for knowledge in the terms of his own time he is a member of the brotherhood of science."
The content of this collection is, on the whole, average in quality, punctuated with three superb essays on the chemical elements. In "The Multiplying Elements," Asimov relates the discovery of the rare earth elements, including the only two "stable" elements to be named after real persons. The following article, "Bridging the Gaps," describes the challenges this new knowledge posted to the as-yet-incomplete Periodic Table, and how the Periodic Table was developed to incorporate the new elements in a sensible, systematic fashion. Finally, "The Nobel Prize that Wasn't" relates how Henry Gwyn-Jefferys Moseley used X-rays to show, once and for all, how the elements should be arranged, and where new elements remained to be discovered. Tragically, Moseley cut short his own life by volunteering for military duty in World War I at the peak of his creativity, and soon thereafter meeting an untimely end in the Gallipoli campaign.
In addition to these jewels, the anthology begins with four essays under the general heading of astronomy, on astrology, sunspots, the names of lunar craters, and the pseudoscientific silliness of Immanuel Velikovsky. Next, three articles on physics focus on gravitation, leading up to the determination of the gravitational constant, and in consequence, the mass of the Earth. Three more physics essays cover the lightspeed barrier, the Doppler effect and how the red shift helped to determine the size of the Universe. Finally, four articles under the heading of "Sociology" discuss the first scientific discovery that directly benefited mankind in an obvious way, the definition of "sin" as it applies to science, the population explosion (Asimov was excessively pessimistic and predicted global population catastrophe by about 2000), and the possibility of international cooperation in matters of worldwide importance.
The Stars in Their Courses anthologizes Isaac Asimov's science fact articles in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from May 1969 through September 1970. A recurring theme in this collection is the contrast between the process of legitimate scientific investigation and faith-based pseudoscience. This footnote, in the eponymous essay, particularly stands out: "If the early astrologers argued in this fashion [i.e., trying to work out the laws that governed natural phenomena], they were imbued with the spirit of science and I honor them. No scholar can be maligned for being wrong in the light of the knowledge of a later period. If he strives for knowledge in the terms of his own time he is a member of the brotherhood of science."
The content of this collection is, on the whole, average in quality, punctuated with three superb essays on the chemical elements. In "The Multiplying Elements," Asimov relates the discovery of the rare earth elements, including the only two "stable" elements to be named after real persons. The following article, "Bridging the Gaps," describes the challenges this new knowledge posted to the as-yet-incomplete Periodic Table, and how the Periodic Table was developed to incorporate the new elements in a sensible, systematic fashion. Finally, "The Nobel Prize that Wasn't" relates how Henry Gwyn-Jefferys Moseley used X-rays to show, once and for all, how the elements should be arranged, and where new elements remained to be discovered. Tragically, Moseley cut short his own life by volunteering for military duty in World War I at the peak of his creativity, and soon thereafter meeting an untimely end in the Gallipoli campaign.
In addition to these jewels, the anthology begins with four essays under the general heading of astronomy, on astrology, sunspots, the names of lunar craters, and the pseudoscientific silliness of Immanuel Velikovsky. Next, three articles on physics focus on gravitation, leading up to the determination of the gravitational constant, and in consequence, the mass of the Earth. Three more physics essays cover the lightspeed barrier, the Doppler effect and how the red shift helped to determine the size of the Universe. Finally, four articles under the heading of "Sociology" discuss the first scientific discovery that directly benefited mankind in an obvious way, the definition of "sin" as it applies to science, the population explosion (Asimov was excessively pessimistic and predicted global population catastrophe by about 2000), and the possibility of international cooperation in matters of worldwide importance.
July 29, 2014
This is a bunch of essays that Asimov groups under Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry and Sociology. Although he is keen to communicate science and dares to manipulate equations(!), there is nothing intimidatingly technical here and the tone is breezy and fun, judiciously sprinkled with a few comical anecdotes. Naturally at 40 years' remove the science is not cutting edge, but Asimov focuses as much on historical development as on the findings themselves anyway.
After shooting astrology in a barrel and putting Velikovsky out of his misery, Asimov scoots through gravity, red-shift, the elements and the population explosion, among other things. For me, there was most interest in the Chemistry section, where Asimov traces the gradual filling in of the familiar periodic table, starting with the challenges raised by 'rare earths'. His trip around the naming of the moon's features was another interesting corner of science history.
Asimov rings alarm bells about global population at the end of the book, with some entertaining extrapolations: grant us teleportation, no change in the rate of population growth, and an absurdly generous distribution of planets, and in only a few thousand years humanity would not merely infest but consume the entire cosmos! If we are a little less worried now than he was in 1970, it's because to some extent we have (more by luck than design) addressed the problem by lowering birth rates, and can hope that population will stabilise mid-century. Still, it's worth encountering his reminder.
His claims, particularly when they appear a tad simplistic, would benefit from references. (Weirdly, his attempt to define scientific 'sin' makes no mention of truth and falsification.) There is little in all this material to startle the reader. But it's a pleasing meander through some less visited meadows of science history.
After shooting astrology in a barrel and putting Velikovsky out of his misery, Asimov scoots through gravity, red-shift, the elements and the population explosion, among other things. For me, there was most interest in the Chemistry section, where Asimov traces the gradual filling in of the familiar periodic table, starting with the challenges raised by 'rare earths'. His trip around the naming of the moon's features was another interesting corner of science history.
Asimov rings alarm bells about global population at the end of the book, with some entertaining extrapolations: grant us teleportation, no change in the rate of population growth, and an absurdly generous distribution of planets, and in only a few thousand years humanity would not merely infest but consume the entire cosmos! If we are a little less worried now than he was in 1970, it's because to some extent we have (more by luck than design) addressed the problem by lowering birth rates, and can hope that population will stabilise mid-century. Still, it's worth encountering his reminder.
His claims, particularly when they appear a tad simplistic, would benefit from references. (Weirdly, his attempt to define scientific 'sin' makes no mention of truth and falsification.) There is little in all this material to startle the reader. But it's a pleasing meander through some less visited meadows of science history.
October 17, 2016
I started to read this book right at the end of my freshman year of college and finished it up in the woods at my cabin where I lived when I worked as a park ranger. I have to say, this book exceeded my expectations by far. I really enjoyed Asimov's style and personality (even though he's kind of an asshole, but I find it funny) and even though this book was far outdated, Asimov really knew his stuff and taught me every topic he addressed from the ground up. He even changed my perspective of F = ma. I will probably reread this book one day for I found it very enjoyable.
June 10, 2009
Asimov is the greatest author I've ever read at dumbing things down for the everyday man. He can explain medieval architecture, quantum mechanics or hypothetical faster-than-light travel in a way that makes sense to just about anyone. This collection of essays talks about the history of the naming of lunar craters, the history of the periodic table of elements, the disasters that may befall mankind if population controls are not implemented, and the lunacy of astrology.
May 11, 2009
Interesting content, but Asimov comes across as completely full of himself and his own intelligence and as a result condescending to a reader who could not possibly have any reasonable knowledge or opinions. I find such a tone off-putting in the extreme and rather wish I had read some of his fiction first.
March 7, 2010
This is one of Asimov's many non-fiction popular science books, covering astronomy and physics in an amiable tone, yet still managing to derive Newton's laws of motions from first principles and easy for a layman to understand. My astronomy isn't particularly good so this helped cover some patches there, and getting a refresher course in Newtonian motion was nice as well.
March 28, 2016
Absolutely loved it. Since this book is decades old, I was worried it would feel out of date. Not at all the case, especially since it looked at science from a historical perspective.
Each chapter starts out with a little anecdote, which I loved. This is the first nonfiction of Asimov I've ever read and I absolutely plan to read more.
Each chapter starts out with a little anecdote, which I loved. This is the first nonfiction of Asimov I've ever read and I absolutely plan to read more.
April 30, 2011
so so
June 2, 2015
508 Science Essays - 17 columns from the May 1969 to September 1970 issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Sci-Fi.
August 16, 2018
It is amazing how relevant much of what Asimov writes about in the 1970's still is in the 2018. Sure some of the population figures are out dated, but the general theories are still interesting and applicable.
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