Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a Russian-born U.S. scientist and prolific author of science and science-fiction books. He received a doctorate from Columbia University in chemistry. Taught biochemistry (1949 - 1958) at Boston University and remained on the faculty until his death. His most famous sci-fi works included I Robot (1950), The Foundation Trilogy (1951 - 1952), Foundation's Edge (1982), and The Gods Themselves (1972), which won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

. . . Eugene, I. Rabinowitch, a leading investigator of photosynthesis, estimates that each year the green plants of the earth combine a total of 50 billion tons of carbon (from carbon dioxide) with 25 billion tons of hydrogen (from water) and liberate 400 billion tons of oxygen. Of this gigantic performance, the plants of the forests and fields account for only 10 per cent; for 90 per cent we have to thank the one-celled plants and seaweed of the oceans. The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science, 1972.

 

Bodies of water, particularly the ocean, are richer in life than the land is, and land organisms are drawn to the ocean as a food supply. The Beginning and the End, 1977.

 

. . . it will be understood that it is the nature of the mind that makes individuals kin, and that the differences in the shape, form or manner of the material atoms out of whose intricate relationships that mind is built are altogether trivial. Ibid.

 

To find refuge from the miserable reality of today in the euphoria produced by drugs or mysticism (not very far apart in their effects) is to surrender - to lie down and wait for death. The Stars in their Courses, 1969, 1970.

 

My island of comfort is but a quiet bubble in a torrent that is heaving its way downhill to utter catastrophe. I see nothing to stand in its way and can only watch in helpless horror.

The matter can be expressed in a single word: Population. Ibid.

 

We are not in an infinite world any longer; we are (and have been for some time now) in a terribly finite world; and we must either adjust to that or die. Ibid.