Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Frontiers 2: More Recent Discoveries About Life, Earth, Space and the Universe

Rate this book
A treasury of 121 tales from the authors of Frontiers contains remarkable stories about humankind, the secrets of planet Earth, the vast expanse of outer space, and the mysteries of the universe. 15,000 first printing. $15,000 ad/promo.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

62 people want to read

About the author

Isaac Asimov

4,337 books27.6k followers
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...

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
4 (13%)
4 stars
11 (36%)
3 stars
14 (46%)
2 stars
1 (3%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
7 reviews4 followers
November 1, 2017
一言でいうと、面白かった。
難しい概念が、分かり易く、イメージのしやすい言葉で説明されていて、あまり科学とは縁のない自分にも、十分楽しむことのできる読み物だった。
この本が日本で出版されたのは1993年のことだったらしく、2017年現在においての続報などと合わせて読み進めていくと、また違った読み方ができて、それもまた楽しかった。ついでに頭も良くなったような気がして気持ちよかったが、これはそういう気がしたというだけで、あまり参考にはしてほしくない。
出版からもうすぐ25年となるわけだが、ロボットや人工知能、ナノテクノロジーから遺伝子工学まで、今日においてもなお興味をそそられる記事が多い一方、温度差を痛感させられるところもあった。
彗星からエネルギー資源を取り出し、月や火星や、どこだかに宇宙の開拓地を作るという話を真剣に力説している部分を読んだ時には、さすがにポカンとさせられてしまった。この温度差を生み出したのは、時間の経過か、アメリカ的価値観とのずれか、それとも私自身の変化だろうか。
確かに、幼少時に、あとうん十年後には宇宙旅行が普通になるとか、そういった類の話があちこちで話されていた記憶がある。それを聞いた私の方もワクワクしながら聞いていた気もする。
今現在、宇宙旅行をしたいという人がどれだけいるのだろうか。宇宙旅行は、いつの間にか、熱を持って語られることがずいぶん減ってしまったような気がする。そうだとすれば、変わったのは、私自身も時代の雰囲気も、おなじように変わってしまったのかもしれない。善し悪しはさておき。
いずれにしても、アシモフ先生の本は楽しい。おもちゃみたいなものだ。
ただあと一点だけ。役に立つかどうかで研究や研究者を判断されると、気分が萎えてしまう。後に日本人研究者がノーベル賞をとることになる研究を、「クォーク狩り」だとか、「物理学者は全てのフレーバーを可愛がっている」などと言われては、気分が悪い。ナショナリズムという言葉に危うさを感じる私にすら、歪んだナショナリズムが芽生えてくる。
日本に限らず、もう少し、他国の研究者にも配慮をしてほしかった。たったそれだけのことで、全体の印象が損なわれるなんてもったいないじゃないか。
Profile Image for Chris.
213 reviews13 followers
April 7, 2013
A collection of interesting snippets on the "current" avenues of exploration in several scientific fields. If nothing else, the book demonstrates how much has changed since 1993 (e.g. Why yes, we now have techniques for detecting small planets). Hardly surprising given my background, the section on biology topics were mostly old news to me. The sections on astronomy, cosmology, and particle physics were less familiar and therefore more useful, although the brevity of each chapter (typically 1.5-2 pages) does not offer more than an awareness and entirely superficial understanding of the topic. The chapters on technology was a grab-bag of unrelated topics. I found it worked best for very short sittings, take a few minutes to read one of the chapters and then mull it over. I wish there was a recommended reading list for topics I would like to learn more about. Still, it's a decent read of appetizers for enlightenment.
Profile Image for Remo.
2,553 reviews181 followers
January 19, 2014
Compendio de artículos aparecidos en periódicos y revistas, que versan sobre los más variados temas, desde los parques a los quasares. La mayoría de los artículos son de Isaac, lo que es de agradecer. No es tan bueno, sin embargo, como otros muchos libros de ensayos que ha publicado. Muy bueno, pero no obra maestra.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.