BOOK REVIEWS: Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

Career landmarks in science: Individual differences and interdisciplinary contrasts.

“…This choice was inspired by (a) the wealth of high-quality data regarding contributions to this endeavor and (b) the excellent consensus that exists on what counts as an important discovery or invention. The primary sample consisted of 2,026 scientists and inventors who were sufficiently notable to be accorded entries in at least one of three selective biographical dictionaries (Asimov, 1972;Howard, 1951;Williams, 1974). Over three dozen nationalities were represented, the individuals spanning the period from antiquity to the 20th century, with an average year of birth of AXX 1717-but with over half born in the 19th century (Simonton, 1984c).…”

“…Given that certain data for the earlier and the more obscure scientists were either missing or unreliable, a truncated sample was also examined consisting solely of those figures who (a) were born after 1450 and (b) had entries in every one of six biographical dictionaries (Asimov, 1982;Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1981;Daintith, Mitchell, & Tootill, 1981;Debus, 1968;Howard, 1951;Williams, 1974). Although the 495 members of this sample still represented a wide range of nationalities and disciplines, the earliest scientist in the sample was Copernicus, and no still-living scientist was included (mean birth year was 1790).…”

Explanatory Identities and Conceptual Change

“…Humphrey Davy isolated sodium in 1807, and also determined that chlorine was an element rather than a compound (Asimov, 1982). Hence I presume it was he who realized that common salt is sodium chloride.…”

“…According to Aristotle, stars were perfect objects moving in crystal spheres embedded in his fifth element, aether. Aristotle thought stars were too permanent to consist of the ordinary elements of earth, air, fire, and water, but in 1868 William Huggins used the newly invented technique of spectroscopy to discover that stars consist of gases, mainly hydrogen (Asimov, 1982). The mechanism by which stars produce light -thermonuclear fusion -was not discovered until the 1920s and 1930s.…”

“…The discovery that lightning is a form of electricity was made by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 (Asimov, 1982), but electronbased mechanisms of electricity were not known until a century later.…”