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How Did We Find Out #8
How Did We Find Out About Vitamins?
Book by Asimov, Isaac
- GenresScience
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
52 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,351 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 10, 2025
This is a very well written book explaining vitamins to children. I’d have given it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 if it wasn’t that of course the book is badly out of date, being written in the 1970s. As usual with Asimov, the history of the subject is very well written and is interesting. For example he explained quite carefully about the origin of the name niacin: that they first figured out the chemical structure from nicotine but didn’t want there to be any confusion that perhaps smoking is good for you so they changed the word so it clearly was not nicotine! Where its age was most apparent was in Asimov’s list of what we do not know about vitamins, particularly the water soluble ones. Recommended with the warning that it is dated.
2/9/25: I’ve been reading this series and couldn’t remember this, so I reread it. I was struck by how fumbling and inconsistent the search for vitamins were. It seemed that until a crisis, people just didn’t research these vitamins. A large part of the problem was how small an amount is needed for these vitamins. It was really hard to make these vitamins from natural foods for scientific research, never mind commercial use. This was not one of the better books in this series but is perfectly useful as long as the reader is aware of the age and that much has been discovered since the book was written.
2/9/25: I’ve been reading this series and couldn’t remember this, so I reread it. I was struck by how fumbling and inconsistent the search for vitamins were. It seemed that until a crisis, people just didn’t research these vitamins. A large part of the problem was how small an amount is needed for these vitamins. It was really hard to make these vitamins from natural foods for scientific research, never mind commercial use. This was not one of the better books in this series but is perfectly useful as long as the reader is aware of the age and that much has been discovered since the book was written.
July 20, 2014
Clear writing as always; creepy drawings, but not unexpected given they depict various illnesses related to vitamin deficiency. Am sure some advances in knowledge about vitamins have been made since 1974.
January 8, 2018
A short and crisp read. It won't take more than 30-45 minutes to complete the book.
Highly impressed by the way the author describes various information about Vitamins.
Highly impressed by the way the author describes various information about Vitamins.
December 16, 2018
اولین کتاب هایی که از کتابخونه گرفتم
تابستان قبل از سال سوم راهنمایی کتابخانه صائب
تابستان قبل از سال سوم راهنمایی کتابخانه صائب
June 27, 2023
এক কথায় অসাধারণ! ভিটামিন আবিষ্কারের শত শত বছরের ইতিহাস মাত্র কয়েক পৃষ্ঠার মধ্যেই। সংক্ষিপ্ত তবু নয় অপর্যাপ্ত! মনে হচ্ছে যেন বিজ্ঞান না অসিমভের কোনো বিজ্ঞান কল্পগল্পই পড়লাম!
November 7, 2024
Wonderful dense booklet on the history of vitamins. Must read to get started on nutrition and just to appreciate how science has been done.
April 26, 2020
This small book gives an interesting historical introduction to the discovery of Vitamins.
I happen to see this book by chance.
If young children were to read these stories, they will find it really interesting and easy to relate which vitamin cures which disease.
No need to waste time on rote learning these scientific facts.
This is a fine book from a master storyteller...
I happen to see this book by chance.
If young children were to read these stories, they will find it really interesting and easy to relate which vitamin cures which disease.
No need to waste time on rote learning these scientific facts.
This is a fine book from a master storyteller...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews