Isaac Asimov
It's hard to be one of the most productive authors in the English language without racking up some serious mileage across genres, and thus Isaac Asimov accentuated his science fiction work with numerous essays for various pulp magazines. Seventeen of these, primarily related to atomic-level physics and its variants in biology and astronomy, are collected in this slightly mis-titled volume, which comprises a just-beyond-introductory level look at various complex scientific concepts. The essays are arranged well, both on an individual level and within three larger sections (with the titular essay placed at the end), and integrate well as a whole, even on such diverse topics as the discovery of ATP and of the Andromeda Galaxy. Beginning with the discovery of the isotope, Asimov gradually explores increasingly difficult, yet intertwined, scientific concepts, always careful to place them within the context of contemporaneous scientific knowledge and development. This works well to bring the casual reader up to speed, but these essays by and large do assume a passing familiarity with high school chemistry, an assumption that is not immediately apparent and which may disappoint some readers who become lost along the way; though they form a coherent look at several aspects of scientific development, these are not for the fainthearted and are heavy in facts though, mercifully, not figures. It's fun, however, for even the casual reader to peer into the minds of scientific geniuses, even if the material can occasionally fly straight over one's head, and Asimov's writing is clear even if the ideas explored aren't. He also does a brilliant job tying everything together and, at the beginning of every essay, steps back to offer an amusing, and often entirely unrelated, personal anecdote. There is humor in this collection, and though detailed and rigorous it is rarely dry, somewhat surprising given the depth of its musings. Welcome, too, is the final essay, presenting Asimov's musings on the popular binary view of correctness, and though its implications are only explored at a surface level, it is a welcoming philosophical note that closes the collection on a level of self-awareness that services the preceding essays well. The Relativity of Wrong may occasionally overwhelm less scientifically-inclined minds, but its essays present well-reasoned and concise, historically-minded introductions to several aspects of modern chemistry and physics.
Grade: B+
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