THE STARS IN THEIR COURSES

This non-technical, misnamed study is not about the movement and make-up of the stars. It is rather a series of essays that appeared first in consecutive issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and because Mr. Asimov's interests range all over the universe, so does this book. Included are sections and chapters on Newton's laws; "weighing" the earth (read the book to see why the quotation marks are needed); the periodic table; astrology and Velikovsky (which and whom he effectively demolishes); the dangers of overpopulation; a defense of science and the space effort; the need for world cooperation; and much else. Aside from a discussion of tachyons — hypothetical, faster-than-light particles — and perhaps the suggestion that the invention of poison gas started the tarnishing of science's halo, there is little in subject matter that is new here. The style is highly informal: "Does it matter that the close match of weight and mass to which we are accustomed on the surface of the earth fails elsewhere? Sure it does." Does it matter that these essays were written by Isaac Asimov and not someone else? Sure it does.