THE BEGINNING AND THE END

Another Asimov Anthology—in case you missed those articles in Playboy, TV Guide, or your favorite in-flight airline magazine. The crop includes prefatory and concluding remarks mostly having to do with the fact that Asimov was asked to write the article, enjoyed doing it, and got paid for it. The themes cover familiar Asimov territory—chemistry, physics, energy, the solar system, cosmology, futurism—with the articles subdivided according to past, present, and future. One innovation is Asimov on future weather. Best is an essay on looking at the sides for neophytes unequipped with instruments who just want to find their way around a few well-known skymarks. Also the title essay, a good exposition of the theories of the origin and end of the universe in which Asimov comes up with an ingenious formulation of absolute beginning out of nothingness and absolute sinking back into nothingness. The rest is medium to good, and slightly repetitious. (He is, after all, writing on similar themes for different journals.) Aside from the general information content the book might show would-be writers how a pro popularizes science for a wide market.