Words of Science by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov's Words of Science  had been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 20 years.  I just completed it reading a couple definitions at a time starting from the back of the book.   My version of the book was published in the late 1950's.  It has an outdated reference to DDT as a chemical treatment that worked well to control malaria and other insect related pathogens.

I was surprised at the liberal borrowing from many different languages for scientific vocabulary, including many Arabic words.  The alkali metal category for the water reactive potassium, sodium and cesium has an Arabic origin.

The Hg initials for mercury combine letters from words that literally mean quick silver.  The known planets were originally named after the known elements only mercury survived the initial cut as it was the planet that moved quickly like the element mercury.  The later radioactive elements of Uranium, Neptunium and plutonium were named after the last planets/dwarf planet in the solar system (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto).

Top Ten Asimov quotes - 3 minutes