This is a new book in the Science & Discovery series—a series which presents the exciting world of science as only scientists know it.  Science & Discovery books offer clear and enjoyable writing, the elegance of logical ideas, and glimpses of the scientist's new and unfolding view of the universe in the mid-twentieth century.

Every once in a while something particularly astonishing and unexpected happens in science—such as, in 1962, the discovery that "the noble gases" would combine with other substances.

What the noble gases are, why they are called noble, and the implications of this recent "scientific reversal" comprise the fascinating subject of Dr. Asimov's newest work.  Indeed, few other substances have quite so dramatic a story behind them.

Widely used today in electric-light bulbs, in neon and fluorescent lights, in blimps, and in anesthetics, the six noble gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.  With superb scientific insight and his well-known sense of dramatic values, Dr. Asimov vividly recounts the circumstances surrounding their discovery in the closing years of the nineteenth century; explains their composition and sources.

From the dust jacket