Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright

228 Pages·1977·22.406 MB·English

by  Isaac Asimov

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010
http://www.archive.org/details/quasarquasarburnOOasim
ISAAC ASIMOV is undoubtedly America's
foremost writer on science for the layman.
An Associate Professor of Biochemistry at
the Boston University School of Medicine,
he has written two hundred books, as
well as hundreds of articles in publica-
tions ranging from Esquire to Atomic En-
ergy Commission pamphlets. Famed for his
science fiction writing (his three-volume
Hugo Award-winning THE FOUNDATION
TRILOGY is available in individual Avon
editions and as a one-volume Equinox edi-
tion), Dr. Asimov is equally acclaimed for
THE
such standards of science reportage as
UNIVERSE, LIFE AND ENERGY, THE
SOLAR SYSTEM AND BACK, ASIMOV'S
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIAOF SCI-
ENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, and ADDING
A DIMENSION (all available in Avon edi-
tions). His non-science writings include
the two-volume ASIMOV'S GUIDE TO
SHAKESPEARE, ASIMOV'S ANNOTATED
DON JUAN, and ASIMOV'S GUIDE TO
THE BIBLE (available in a two-volumeAvon
edition). Born in Russia, Asimov came to
this country with his parents at the age of
three, and grew up in Brooklyn. In 1948 he
received his Ph.D..in Chemistry at Columbia
and then joined the faculty at Boston Uni-
versity, where heworks today.
OtherAvon books by
Isaac Asimov
Adding a Dimension 36871
Asimov on Physics
Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia
of Science and Technology
Asimov's Guide to the Bible,
the New Testament
Asimov's Guide to the Bible,
the Old Testament
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
The Foundation Trilogy
From Earth to Heaven
Life and Energy
The Neutrino
Of Time, Space, and Other Things
The Planet that Wasn't There
The Solar System and Back
The Universe:
From Flat Earth to Quasar
View From a Height
QUASAR, QUASAR
BURNING BRIGHT
ISAAC ASIMOV
e
ADISCUS BOOK/PUBLISHED BYAVON BOOKS
Dedicated to
The Memory of Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977)
The following essays in this volume are reprinted from The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, having appeared in
the indicated issues:
It's a Wonderful Town! May 1976
Surprise! Surprise! June 1976
Making It! July 1976
Moving Ahead, August 1976
To the Top, September 1976
Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright! October 1976
The Comet That Wasn't, November 1976
The Sea-Green Planet, December 1976
Discoveryby Blink, January 1977
Asimov's Corollary, February 1977
The MagicIsle, March 1977
The Dark Companion, April 1977
Twinkle, Twinkle, Microwaves, May 1977
The Final Collapse, June 1977
Of Ice and Men, July 1977
Oblique the Centric Globe, August 1977
The Opposite Poles, September 1977
©
1976, 1977 by Mercury Press, Inc.
AVON BOOKS
A
division of
The Hearst Corporation
959 Eighth Avenue
New York, New York 10019
©
Copyright 1976, 1977 by Mercury Press, Inc.
Published by arrangement with Doubleday & Co.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-82613
ISBN: 0-380-^4610-3
All rights reserved, which includes the right
to reproduce this book or portions thereof in
any form whatsoever. For information address
Doubleday & Co., 245 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10017
First Discus Printing, June, 1979
AVON TRADEMARKREG. U.S. PAT. OFF. AND IN
OTHER COUNTRIES, MARCA REGISTRADA, HECHO EN
U.S.A.
Printed in the U.S.A.
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
I Qur Atoms
1 Surprise! Surprise! 12
2 The Magic Isle 26
II Our Cities
3 It's aWonderful Town! 40
III Our Nation
4 Making It! 54
5 Moving Ahead 67
6 To the Top 79
IV Our Planet
7 Of Ice and Men 92
8 Oblique the Centric Globe 104
9 The Opposite Poles 116
V
Our Solar System
10 The Comet That Wasn't 128
11 The Sea-Green Planet 140
12 Discovery by Blink 151
VI OurCosmos
13 Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright 164
14 The Dark Companion 175
15 Twinkle, Twinkle, Microwaves 187
16 The Final Collapse 198
VII Ourselves
17 Asimov's Corollary 210

INTRODUCTION
my
This is thirteenth collection of science essays taken
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and
to each one of the previous twelve I have written an
introduction. —
Twelve different introductions and now I have to write
a thirteenth. The trouble is that it's beginning to seem a
dreadful chore to think of something I can say on the
thirteenth occasion that I have not said in one or another
of the previous twelve. In fact, it even seems an unaccept-
able task to look over the first twelve books in order to see
what I had said before.
So I sat down to a cup of coffee which my wife, Janet,
had tolerantly prepared for me (she drinks tea) and said,
broodingly, "I haven't the faintest idea how to introduce
my new collection of science essays."
She said, "Why not write something on what one means
by an 'essay'?'*
"Great," I said, finishing the coffee fast, and here I am
atthetypewriter.
For many years now it has been customary for science
fiction magazines to include among their stories some non-
fiction piece dealing with science. Partly this was for a
change in pace and partly, I think, to emphasize the fact
that science fiction, at its best, deals seriously with science
and that science fiction readers would willingly accept
doses of the straight stuff now and then.
Generally, the nonfiction pieces were distinguished from
the stories by being termed "articles."
When I first began to write my monthly science piece
for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, ever so
many years ago when I was a little over thirty,* I thought
* Oddly enough, I am still alittle over thirty today.
of them as "science articles." Gradually, however, there
came a shift in my thinking and I began to consider them
not articles but "science essays."
The word "essay," as a verb, means "to attempt" or "to
try," although it sounds rather antiquated these days and
it is rarely used. You "essay a task," for instance.
"Essay" can also be used as a noun, so that you can
"make an essay to do something," just as you can "make
an attempt," but in this usage the word seems even more
antiquated.
In these two senses, the word "essay" is accented on the
second syllable.
One of the reasons why "essay" has become antiquated
and has fallen out of use is the competing use of the noun
"essay" (accented on the first syllable) for the sort of thing
you find in this book. It was invented in this sense about
1580 by the French writer Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
(1533-92).
He called his short pieces "essays" (essais, in French)
precisely because he modestly considered them merely at-
tempts to deal with a subject. His pieces were brief and
simple, rather than long, detailed, and abstruse discussions.
They dealt with some one narrow topic, rather than with
a whole field. They were tentative attempts to consider
some aspect of a subject after a few hours of musing,
rather than being the definitive product of a lifetime of
thought.
Most of all, though, most of all, an essay is distinguished
from more formal expository works by the personal touch.
The author does not hesitate to put himself into an essay;
in fact, it would scarcely be an essay if he did not. This
goes without saying if the essay is subjective and deals
primarily with the writer's own thoughts and emotions, but
even when the essay is objective and deals with, let us say,
a scientific phenomenon, the "I" intrudes and should
intrude.
It may sound easy to write an essay. You just sit down
and maunder about a bit. It doesn't have to be formal be-
cause it's supposed to be informal. It doesn't have to be
very abstruse because it's supposed to be just an easygoing
attempt at the subject. And it doesn't have to induce men-
tal cramps through overlong concentration since you are
supposed to break the spell with asides or little jokes or
anything else that occurs to you. What could be easier?
8