Asimov On Chemistry By Isaac Asimov

Asimov On Chemistry by Isaac Asimov

The Book Asimov on Chemistry by Isaac Asimov is a collection of seventeen essays that he wrote for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

This book is one of ten that were published by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Not all of the books centered on chemistry and like science. Most just covered anything Isaac Asimov wondered about. These Essays date back quite aways with a range from January 1959 to April 1966.

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

The Weighting Game

This i found to be the most boring in the whole book. It covers chemical atomic weight and physical atomic weight. It also gives chemical methods that determine the atomic weight. Slow burn

This is a description of how Isaac newton contributed to the field of chemistry along with what civilizations thought of chemistry. Then he talks about a pathologically shy, absentminded, stuffy, women-hating chemist. This man did make some discoveries about inflammable gas and proved water to be an oxide. The Element of Perfection

Asimov talks about astronomers in the mid 1800's, and how they made the spectroscope. Only then does he start to mention a element a french chemist belived to be new or maybe just a heavier from of nitrogen. Inert gases and there liquefaction points are then listed along when they when fisrt liquefied by a chemist. Welcome, Stranger!

This talks about the rarest of stable enert gases, xenon. It also tells why that in 1962 so many expirements were done involving this gas. Fisrt it defines the word gas, and talks about different types in about four pages. Thens he talks about how it is combined with flourine to form a poison.

Death in the Labratory

Here Asimov talks about how scientists have died due to poor lab conditions and other matters. He also tells you a few way to poison youself in a lab such as mixing xenon and flourine. He then goes off and explains how flourine was used and discovered along with who died in this process. A few other poisonous chemical compounds are also mentioned.

To Tell a Chemist

This is Isaac Asimov's way of telling if someone is chemist or not. The two questions are: (1) How do you pronounce UNIONIZED? and (2) what is a mole?

He feels that if you can say un-EYE-on-ized and talk for hours about molecular weight to define mole, then you must be a chemist.

NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

The Evens Have It

Concluded here is how isotopes are impractical and how to identify them.

He then descibes how an isotope is constructed. also he says an element with an