LIFE AND TIME
by Isaac Asimov
Read a collection of Asimov essays (these mostly culled from magazines as varied as Penthouse and Popular Mechanics) and you can count on finding a statistical gem. Our favorite in this bunch is the description of one cubic kilometer of water: if it were poured onto a "Manhattan imagined to be bare level land it did not run off, it would cover the entire island to a depth of 17.5 meters." This introduces a cautionary essay on the water resources of the planet which comes midway through a text organized according to the theme of life past, present, and future—hence the title. The organizing principle is clear at the outset with some less than vintage pieces on evolution, green plants, and the brain plus a good one on the definition of life. Moving rapidly on, we come to essays on the moon and the discovery of argon, salt, memory, genes, and finally a group on the future. These include one on technology and communication (an apotheosis of the computer), on the legal aspects of space colonization and, fittingly, a final piece on catastrophes and how the world may end. Despite the admixture of cockeyed optimism and dour warnings—the collection tells a lot about life and tells it well