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The Tyrannosaurus Prescription
America's most revered science writer is represented here by one hundred and one previously uncollected essays and ruminations. The Tyrannosaurus Prescription demonstrates the full range of Isaac Asimov's his lively discussions of science fiction, future space adventures, inner space discoveries, rediscoveries of our hidden past, and even what to do when the present state of the world is just too oppressive - his "Tyrannosaurus Prescription." Asimov fans will find gems of every kind in this far-roving collection. The section on "Science" provides thirteen pieces on the planets; unstable atomic nuclei; Einstein, "the one-man revolution"; and dinosaurs. "SciQuest" includes twenty of Asimov's best columns for SciQuest magazine, many of which vividly describe the inspiring struggles of great scientists - William Herschel, Michael Faraday, Joseph Henry, Ernest Rutherford, and others. Asimov's awesome grasp of culture - ancient and modern - is on display in "Foreword by Isaac Asimov." A special treat are two highly personal autobiographical essays, co-authored with his wife, Janet, that reveal the writer to be as eccentric as he is sane, as all-here as he is visionary.
- GenresScienceEssaysNonfiction
323 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1977
26 people are currently reading
187 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 13, 2016
I had tried this book years ago and simply couldn't make my way through it. It is a collection of essays and I tend to prefer much longer formats. Some may have been the way Asimov did this collection, by broad subjects. As he noted himself, doing it this way meant there was overlap in the essays in each grouping. However, Asimov is still marvelous, even if there is some repetition. The best section was easily the section on Science Fiction. Who better to write about the history of Science Fiction than one of the Big Three himself? It also reminded me that I need to try some Arthur C. Clarke titles again.The next best section was titled Sciquest, a series of articles he wrote with youth in mind for a magazine called Sciquest, meant for high school students interested in Chemistry. It allowed him to make use of one of his best skills: explaining science to interested people such as students. He also tossed in forewords he had written for a variety of titles which was very interesting. I'd like to go find some of these titles, many of which he edited. I would recommend this for people who are serious Asimov fans, of which there probably are not many any more.
May 8, 2023
Great essays. Some stronger than others. I enjoyed this a lot. I took forever to read it all because, being essays, I just read the odd one here and there as a bedside, or coffee read when I had a few minutes here and there. But this past week or so, really enjoyed reading through the last third of the book to finish it off, having become more intrigued on some of the later essays.
It's a shame that Asimov died in 1992, this book having been published in 1989. The ending, which isn't a spoiler, where he thanks his doctors over the years for being alive, is in hindsight very sad, because they gave him a blood transfusion at one point, giving him the AIDS that would eventually take his life, just 3 years after this book was published. At one point elsewhere in the book he also comments about how he is a youngster relative to Arthur C. Clark (Heinlein having sadly died in 1988), and I was just aghast, because little did he knew, his hopes of old old age, and many years more of writing would not last. We lost a true great in 1992. I was but a child when he died, and would only later discover the glory of his writings, both fiction AND non-fiction, in Grade 8 with his book Nemesis almost a decade after he was already long deceased. Then it wouldn't be until 2011, yet another decade plus later when I read Foundation for the first time. In 2016-ish I then went on to re-read foundation and all the robot stories etc in publication order, starting with The Complete Robot then the robot novels etc. Since THEN, I have really become a true fan.... over 2 decades after his death... And he is still making a massive impact. I now own over 70 of his books and have read MANY!
I should note that Nemesis was the most mature book to that date I had read in grade 8 and teachers were shocked to see me reading it, because it was only in grade 7 that I was getting in trouble a lot for not paying attention and distracting class, getting suspended a lot. Then I discovered Orson Scott Card's Homecoming books in the school library, having judged them literally by their spine and cover art, then the description on the back of the book. It was just after struggling to read those that I read Nemesis while on in in school suspension for 5 days between school work. It was not an easy thing for me at that stage of life to read. I hadn't read much of anything complex besides those 5 Orson Scott Card books which changed my life. I wound up getting a BA English degree with honours, later, as a result of my then found love of reading.
It's a shame that Asimov died in 1992, this book having been published in 1989. The ending, which isn't a spoiler, where he thanks his doctors over the years for being alive, is in hindsight very sad, because they gave him a blood transfusion at one point, giving him the AIDS that would eventually take his life, just 3 years after this book was published. At one point elsewhere in the book he also comments about how he is a youngster relative to Arthur C. Clark (Heinlein having sadly died in 1988), and I was just aghast, because little did he knew, his hopes of old old age, and many years more of writing would not last. We lost a true great in 1992. I was but a child when he died, and would only later discover the glory of his writings, both fiction AND non-fiction, in Grade 8 with his book Nemesis almost a decade after he was already long deceased. Then it wouldn't be until 2011, yet another decade plus later when I read Foundation for the first time. In 2016-ish I then went on to re-read foundation and all the robot stories etc in publication order, starting with The Complete Robot then the robot novels etc. Since THEN, I have really become a true fan.... over 2 decades after his death... And he is still making a massive impact. I now own over 70 of his books and have read MANY!
I should note that Nemesis was the most mature book to that date I had read in grade 8 and teachers were shocked to see me reading it, because it was only in grade 7 that I was getting in trouble a lot for not paying attention and distracting class, getting suspended a lot. Then I discovered Orson Scott Card's Homecoming books in the school library, having judged them literally by their spine and cover art, then the description on the back of the book. It was just after struggling to read those that I read Nemesis while on in in school suspension for 5 days between school work. It was not an easy thing for me at that stage of life to read. I hadn't read much of anything complex besides those 5 Orson Scott Card books which changed my life. I wound up getting a BA English degree with honours, later, as a result of my then found love of reading.
December 5, 2020
El gran maestro Asimov, siempre logra plantearme cosas tan profundas de una manera tan amena Tengo que conseguir más de su obra.
November 26, 2025
Asimov is Asimov!
March 20, 2020
The Tyrannosaurus Prescription is a series of 101 short essays by the master of science and science fiction, Isaac Asimov. The most interpreting pieces in this book come towards the first third, where he’s discussing what technologies we will have in the future (moon colonies, space mining, fusion energy) and even some we have now (he basically comes up with the idea of Wikipedia). The latter parts of the book are good but not as engaging, mostly overviews or great scientists in history and potential issues with public illiteracy in science. I recommend this book for Asimov fans specifically; if you’re new to his work, this isn’t the best book to read first. But if you’re someone who loves his writing as I do, you’ll find much to like in this collection.
August 22, 2016
I read this after finishing the first Foundation trilogy. Despite some astute observations, the prose gets pretty tiring. For one, there's lots of repetition, particularly in the collected book introductions. I also get tired of his scientific materialism and constant belittling of anyone who disagrees. That said, the first half of the book--particularly when he talks about his life and methods--are quite worth the time.
March 28, 2015
814. 101 short articles from 1978-88 categorized into 'The Future", "Space", "Science", "Sciquest" 20 monthly columns for Sciquest magazine, "Forward by Isaac Asimov" 42 book forwards, "Sci-Fi" and "Personal". Interesting but with the articles written in a short period of time for different audiences there is a lot of thematic overlap.
June 21, 2011
It's amazing, the perfect book to introduce and understand the great work of Issac Asimov...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews