8.2 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Publisher Abelard-Schuman Pages 195 Genres Essay, Science | 4.1/5 Goodreads Language English Publication date 1957 Originally published 1957 Page count 195 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Media type Print (Hardback and Paperback) Similar Isaac Asimov books, Essays, Science books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Only a Trillion is a collection of ten science essays and three scientific spoof articles by Isaac Asimov. It was the first collection of science essays published by Asimov. It was first published by Abelard-Schuman in 1957. A paperback edition published by Ace Books in 1976 included updates of outdated material (re-issued in 1980). The book was also published under the title Marvels of Science by Collier Books in 1962.
Contents
Contents
- The Atoms That Vanish (first published in Change!, 1957)
- The Explosions Within Us (original article)
- Hemoglobin and the Universe (first published in Astounding Science Fiction, Feb. 1955)
- Victory on Paper (first published in Astounding, Sept. 1955)
- The Abnormality of Being Normal (first published in Astounding, May 1956)
- Planets Have an Air About Them (first published in Astounding, March 1957)
- The Unblind Workings of Chance (first published in Astounding, April 1957)
- The Trapping of the Sun (first published in Astounding, May 1957)
- The Sea-Urchin and We (first published in Astounding, July 1957)
- The Sound of Panting (first published in Astounding, June 1955)
- The Marvellous Properties of Thiotimoline
- The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline (first published in Astounding, March 1948)
- The Micropsychiatric Applications of Thiotimoline (first published in Astounding, Dec. 1953)
- Pâté de Foie Gras (first published in Astounding, Sept. 1956)
Reception
Floyd C. Gale stated that Asimov "[a]lmost certainly had enormous fun writing this collection of articles. He staggers, frightens, amazes and, in two, fiendishly misleads his reader".
Following the publication of Only a Trillion, Asimov compiled several more science essays into the manuscript for another, similar book titled Only a Light-Year, but that book was never published.