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Science, Numbers, And I
Paperback
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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158 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,337 books27.8k 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 19, 2023
This reminds me of a version of Malcolm Gladwell from fifty years ago with the way he makes non-fiction essays interesting.
(This was really more like 3 stars because the content was outdated, but could have been 5 stars if I had read it when it was first published.)
(This was really more like 3 stars because the content was outdated, but could have been 5 stars if I had read it when it was first published.)
November 29, 2019
Klassische Essays des Meisters. Am beindruckendsten "Ich betrachte ein vierblättriges Kleeblatt", wo Asimov seine Idee der Enstehungsgeschichte des Universums erläutert. Klingt noch immer sehr modern. Viele andere sind natürlich veraltet, aber darum geht es ja auch nicht.
April 13, 2013
My favorite essay in this book was the one about antipodes. In fact, I loved it so much that my PreCalculus class can now look forward to reading it.
March 5, 2017
17 more essays/articles by asimov. This time they are broken down in 3 groups, Science essays which include a great essay on the expanding and contracting universe, Numbers which include things like time zones, sizes of rivers, and population figures (man that sounds boring), and a final essay about the author's youth. I'd say more than half of the essays I'd read again for pure pleasure and almost all of the others either taught me something and/or interested me in some way. I wonder if there is a modern day Asimov out there today writing pop science like this and teaching the masses? Bill Nye perhaps? On to the next one.
January 19, 2025
A fascinating collection of essays on the title subjects (8, 8 and 1 to be exact) that just happen to have intrigued one of the great minds of the 20th century. Asimov writes with great clarity, enthusiasm and not a little humour. Some of the essays were on topics I already knew well so I can confirm they are extremely well researched and presented in a way that anyone could grasp. This is an excellent example of what this type of book should be and despite its near 60 year old publication date it is still outstandingly readable.
June 12, 2021
Interesting array of scientific articles.
Read
August 9, 2022As usual, very good essay collection. Bonus points for a short autobiographical piece.
January 18, 2020
I must have got this book from my neighbor in the 1980s.
The essay I remember the most was the one on the mathematics of musical notes.
The essay I remember the most was the one on the mathematics of musical notes.
March 9, 2017
A collection of his mid 60s F&SF science columns, some of which I've read way back when. Entertaining.
April 8, 2014
This was my first foray into Asimov and I found him delightful. He's quite funny here while being very readable on many aspects of cosmology that I previously found difficult to penetrate. I think he was born to be a science explainer. I liked his style and whimsy. I'm ready to read more of his non-fiction. The best essay, to me, was "Knock Plastic!" I felt he perfectly commented on science and religion without judging.
January 17, 2020
Science was mostly Swahili to me. Numbers was better--by a smidgen...and I made up for the first two. That and the (occasionally) apocryphal stories that preceded each chapter.
Just so you know, it's not you, Isaac, it's me. Science and numbers were never my thing, and you took both to sheer, genius heights, you turned your book of essays into a textbook for prodigies.
Just so you know, it's not you, Isaac, it's me. Science and numbers were never my thing, and you took both to sheer, genius heights, you turned your book of essays into a textbook for prodigies.
August 23, 2016
Written 50 years ago and still relevant. Fantastic!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews