Biographical Encyclopedia of Science & Technology

by Isaac Asimov (Editor)

s/t: The Lives & Achievements of 1195 Great Scientists From Ancient Times To The Present, Chronologically Arranged

Genres: Science, History, Biography, Nonfiction, Reference, Technology, History Of Science

806 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Works 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...

Reviews

[Thannasset · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I learned from this book? That I want to own it! This incredible guy ties history of science to human psychology to history of everything else...and does it so so well. Liked a few of his science fiction stories/series, used his non-fiction writing for years as a basic foundation when starting a new area of study, but this book alone would be enough to make a writer's reputation.

[Beau Daignault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such books are useful even in these times of 'Google research.'

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first discovered this book in 1980 in the university library. What an amazing book. In the days before Wikipedia and the internet, we have the lifes of all mayor scientist. As compiled by single man. Who for this work alone would be considered a genius by me. I was tempted to steal this book, but instead hunted for it for many years and finally found it in the Strand bookstore in 1999. So, this took me 19 years. And then it took me 19 years to actually read it cover to cover. The reason it took so long is that I did not ever want to reach the end. So, I would only take small bites.
Of course, the biographies are not all of equal quality, a great many are just too short. Especially among the newer scientists. And it might be a little heavy on Astronomy and Chemistry. Whereas Mathematicians are handled with less enthusiasm (and knowledge) by the Good Doctor. The entry on Turing, for example, should definitely be expanded and improved. But all in all a truly magnificent book. Another thing that is of great interest are the many German Scientists who left Germany during the Third Reich. And not only Jews. A lot of them naturally I had never heard of before. This is really a good thing to know. It proves that intelligent people, who had the chance would not stay. Obviously with a couple of exceptions. But unless Asimov cheated a bit here, nearly all important scientists had left Germany.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enormous brick of a book, and it has taken me simply an age to get through it, but get through it I have. Every single page. In some respects it is extraordinary, and I think the most effective thing about it, as it gives potted biographies of scientists (along with summaries of their work) is the sense of movement, of discoveries building on upon the other, as each person contributes their little share to advance the cause of scientific knowledge. Science, this book makes clear, is a community discipline. In service of this, the scale on which Asimov works here is immense, and the book covers scholars from Imhotep to Stephen Hawking, whose birth in 1942 marks the last of the 1510 biographies here. If I get nothing else from reading this, it is an appreciation for the waves of contribution and progress over time.

There are, however, some issues. Some of these are small and seriously picky, for instance the exclusion of some scientists. Obviously 1510 is a massive amount, and limitations have to be set, and no doubt most science fans who read this will note the absences of their particular favourites. In my case: there's no Lina Stern here. No Chien-Shiung Wu. The whole freakishly talented Bernoulli family is represented by Daniel alone. There is also, and I say this with nothing but disgust (for the man if not the omission) no Josef Mengele. The history of science needs to drag the cockroaches of the vocation into the light as well, and I understand perfectly why Asimov, born of a Jewish family as he was, did not want to do so - especially as the subtitle of this book refers to the lives and achievements of "great scientists", and Mengele was only great in monstrosity as far as I am concerned. Yet Fritz Haber gets a sympathetic listing, and that fucker was the father of chlorine gas and chemical warfare. Asimov does try to be objective, I think, but there is on the whole little engagement with potentially difficult subjects when they intersect with the lives of the scientists in question - consider, as another example, the entry on Alan Turing and the total lack of acknowledgement of the persecution he experienced.

You can argue that these are minor issues, but what dropped this down from four stars to three, for me, was a rather more serious limitation. It was a struggle to finish this book, it was, and that was mostly because the focus was so narrow. To be blunt, if a scientist's research couldn't win a Nobel Prize, Asimov wasn't interested... and this holds for the research performed before the prizes were established. It is an exaggeration to say that there are a hundred articles on scientists who studied electrons and none on scientists who studied ecology, but it is not a very large exaggeration. No doubt this results from the author's own chemical background, but the vast, vast number of biographies here focus on chemistry and physics, and when biology gets a look-in it is mostly only to do with medicine or physiology (i.e. that which could win a Nobel), and even then the entries are noticeably shorter. The focus on nuclear physics is fucking interminable, and you could slog your way through this book and be forgiven for thinking that, in the whole of human history, only a tiny handful of people ever gave a damn about anthropology, archaeology, psychology, zoology, ecology, and so forth.

If this was an encyclopaedia of chemists, physicists, and physiologists it would earn its four stars alright, but this markets itself as an encyclopaedia of scientists, full stop, and there it falls down somewhat.

[Curtiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

If asked to name the one book I would want to have with me on a desert isle, I would choose this one (in any of its editions), in which the Good Doctor covers 1510 biographies of the world's top scientists, mathematicians, inventors, and explorers from Imhotep to Dr. Carl Sagan of the TV series "Cosmos."

The Good Doctor's list of biographies originally stopped at 1000 entries, but Asimov later expanded the number of entries to 1195 so it could finish with an entry for his good friend and fellow science writer, Dr. Carl Sagan. A subsequent edition was expanded to 1510 entrees in order to conclude with an entry for Dr. Stephen R. Hawking.

Each biography features highlites of the career of a scientist/mathematician/inventor/explorer whose contributions materially advanced humanity's understanding of the universe or its ability to enjoy longer more productive lives as individuals.

The entries are also copiously cross-referenced so that starting from any entry taken at random and then following up every cross-reference, the reader will eventually read nearly every entry and come away with a feeling that science & technology consists of an interconnected community of striving individuals whose achievements continue to build upon the efforts of those who came before. As the Good Doctor puts it "science is a tangled skein, with every thread connected to every other thread."

I love this book and have copies of all three editions.

[Dean Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this comprehensive reference book (2d Revised Edition). It gives a detailed background on all the early scientists (astrologers, biologists, chemists, mathematicians, physicists, etc.)from Imhotep born in the 13th century to Stephen Hawking born in 1942.

[Javier H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque leer una enciclopedia parece de locos no es una enciclopedia corriente, presenta a los inventores cronológicamente y los trata en conjunto y sus relaciones de modo que es una especie de historia de la ciencia contada por Asimov

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this cover to cover, on a road trip from NYC to Miami and back in the 6th grade. So much I have forgotten.

[Blóking · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impresionante y muy amena enciclopedia de ciencia y tecnología.

[Ozgur · Rating 5 out of 5]

muhteşem.

[Maz · Rating 5 out of 5]

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