<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: simply great and easily understood
Review: 'Atom' is very easy to read. I have not had any calculus and therefore could not take physics in college. But the author presents the information without using anything more than everyday math! Also, I was taking a 101-level Physical Science class and the class's textbook gave a bit of information about an atom here, and another bit there, and it was nearly impossible to pull the facts together into a single conceptual "model". However, this book does the job quite nicely (by the way, 'Atom' also presents some other physical science material, such as properties of light and electomagnetic radiation and the four fundamental forces, in easier-to-understand language than the college book). I now have a clear understanding of the components of an atom - the oribiting electrons that form a "cloud" and the nucleus (composed of neutrons and protons - and their buliding blocks: quarks), other subatomic particles (leptons, hadrons, baryons, mesons, neutrinos, etc), the 2 fundamental forces that hold atomic nuclei together (the weak and strong nuclear force), and the concept of exchange particles that transmit the fundamental forces. I would have never obtained this kind of clarity from the college text. The author not only informs the reader of the facts, but also explains how they were discovered - this helps to increase the retention of the facts.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Better than my college books concerning atoms.
Review: 'Atom' is very easy to read. I have not had any calculus and therefore could not take physics in college. But the author presents the information without using anything more than everyday math! Also, I was taking a 101-level Physical Science class and the class's textbook gave a bit of information about an atom here, and another bit there, and it was nearly impossible to pull the facts together into a single conceptual "model". However, this book does the job quite nicely (by the way, 'Atom' also presents some other physical science material, such as properties of light and electomagnetic radiation and the four fundamental forces, in easier-to-understand language than the college book). I now have a clear understanding of the components of an atom - the oribiting electrons that form a "cloud" and the nucleus (composed of neutrons and protons - and their buliding blocks: quarks), other subatomic particles (leptons, hadrons, baryons, mesons, neutrinos, etc), the 2 fundamental forces that hold atomic nuclei together (the weak and strong nuclear force), and the concept of exchange particles that transmit the fundamental forces. I would have never obtained this kind of clarity from the college text. The author not only informs the reader of the facts, but also explains how they were discovered - this helps to increase the retention of the facts.
Rating:
Summary: The Secret of My Success
Review: I'm a hobby science-fiction writer, and you can't do that plausibly without knowing the facts of the subject matter. Everything I know about physics I drew from this book and from Richard Feynman's "Six Easy Pieces," which I also recommend. When I sell things and you like them, you'll be able to go to this book and say, "so that's where he got it from."
Rating: 
Summary: Completely Dry and Uninteresting
Review: Isaac Asimov's Atom is an interesting premise for a book...the evolution of the smallest aspect of an element which is the basic aspect of life and existance. Asimov intends to take the reader across centuries explaining simply, interestingly, and concisely how this fascinating little thing came to be as it is and why it is so important.However, Asimov explains the atom neither simply, interestingly, nor concisly. Let me rephrase...Asimov's writing style is extremely dry in this book. It is understandable to a certain extent...the book is divided into 51 small sections of between 3 to 7 pages each. If a reader attempts to read over more than one or two of these sections at a time, it becomes nausiating. Explainations of experiments are extremely difficult to understand, and the book drags and lacks any interest whatsoever in many parts. Redeemed by interesting tidbits, it is easy to understand how a science buff can enjoy this and understand it, but to the average reader, the prose is uncommonly dull and loquacious. The diverse gallimaufry of scientists govered begin to combine in the mind, and it is difficult to remember who did what. As the book stretches onward passed the three-hundered page mark, the reader is constantly questioning "Why do I care? I have learned what the atom is today, and how it came about originally. Why on earth to I need to know all the errors in between?" In conclusion, Asimov's Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos may be perfectly suited to the literature taste buds of a science afficianado, but nobody who takes no particular interest in the subject should be forced to read such a dry and useless account. Asimov has talent, which he beautifully and powerfully demonstrates in certain parts of Atom and in almost every single other work he has written, but here his talents need to be reserved for the most scientific amongst us. It is unfortunate that so many Chemistry teachers require this book as reading for their class. This difficult narrative will only succeed in fogging the perception even more.
Rating:
Summary: most comprehensive and easy to understand book about Atoms
Review: Most people probably know Isaac Asimov because of his fiction books.However, he is also a great writer of nonfiction works. "Atom" is a great exampleof his nonfiction work. It is also the best book on Atoms and subatomic particles I have ever read, and I have read several. Asimov takes an 'easy to understand' approach to the study of subatomic particles; starting from the beginning of the Atomic theory, all the way to quarks and neutrinos. The two best points about this book: (1) It is easy to understand (2) It is comprehensive and very detailed
Rating:
Summary: True Asimov style
Review: This book is an excellent summation of the progress made in discovering sub-atomic particles, It may not now be up to date (it was printed in 1991), but I would not forgo the learning within, or the Asimov method of presenting it. Isaac Asimov specialty was explaining difficult subjects to his readers. He did an admiral job keeping the subject matter interesting. Each short chapter is dedicated to a particle, ex. mesons, quarks, bosons. Each chapter also gives a little historical background of the search and discovery behind each particle and how it fits within the sub-atomic world. Nuclear physicists may have progressed far beyond this by now, but this is still a good book for piecing together the subatomic puzzle of particles.
Rating:
Summary: Asimov's Atom
Review: This book reveals a part of Isaac Asimov that I have never realized before: the Detective. His journey across the subatomic cosmos is that of a detective, whether he is analyzing electrons, light, neutrons, quasars, antimatter, neutrinos, interactions, or the universe. He presents a mystery, a problem, that stumps the experts in physics or chemistry or mathematics, and then begins eliminating the suspects one by one until the only possible solution is revealed. He has done the same thing in his science fiction, for example in his Foundation Series and Robot Series (see my Amazon.com reviews of various of his books) - in fact, the heroes of his robot series were a human detective and a robot or android detective. I grew up reading the science fiction of Asimov and/or his colleagues, and my wife Dr. Marleen Josie Doctorow used Asimov's book on psychological science fiction in her university psychology courses. Asimov, by a remarkable coincidence, was married to a psychiatrist, Dr. Janet Jeppson, and she continued his Foundation Series after his death via his Estate and the great writers Brin, Bear, and Benford. When I read the front page headlines recently in newspapers attacking psychiatrists and psychologists like Freud, I wonder whether the journalists realize that all of science and medicine and journalism involve detective stories. The greatest detectives also have something called intuition, which also goes by the name of ESP, and in theology is considered to be a quality of the Divine. Asimov had it, Saint Thomas Acquinas had it, the Old Testament Prophets and Mohammed had it, Buddha had it, Einstein had it, Field Marshall Montgomery had it. It leaves us humble and grateful for the miracles of our and their existence.
Rating:
Summary: Asimov's Atom
Review: This book reveals a part of Isaac Asimov that I have never realized before: the Detective. His journey across the subatomic cosmos is that of a detective, whether he is analyzing electrons, light, neutrons, quasars, antimatter, neutrinos, interactions, or the universe. He presents a mystery, a problem, that stumps the experts in physics or chemistry or mathematics, and then begins eliminating the suspects one by one until the only possible solution is revealed. He has done the same thing in his science fiction, for example in his Foundation Series and Robot Series (see my Amazon.com reviews of various of his books) - in fact, the heroes of his robot series were a human detective and a robot or android detective. I grew up reading the science fiction of Asimov and/or his colleagues, and my wife Dr. Marleen Josie Doctorow used Asimov's book on psychological science fiction in her university psychology courses. Asimov, by a remarkable coincidence, was married to a psychiatrist, Dr. Janet Jeppson, and she continued his Foundation Series after his death via his Estate and the great writers Brin, Bear, and Benford. When I read the front page headlines recently in newspapers attacking psychiatrists and psychologists like Freud, I wonder whether the journalists realize that all of science and medicine and journalism involve detective stories. The greatest detectives also have something called intuition, which also goes by the name of ESP, and in theology is considered to be a quality of the Divine. Asimov had it, Saint Thomas Acquinas had it, the Old Testament Prophets and Mohammed had it, Buddha had it, Einstein had it, Field Marshall Montgomery had it. It leaves us humble and grateful for the miracles of our and their existence.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is an excellent book for students of almost all ages (14 up). I was 14 when I read it, with no education in atoms, and I understood it perfectly. Asimov writes in a way that is extremely provocative and very informative. I highly recommed this book.
<< 1 >>
|
