["Words of Science and the History Behind Them"] is an alphabetically arranged collection of one-page essays on such unfamiliar words as catalysis, isomer, occultation, tantalum, and yttrium, and such quite ordinary words as artery, continent, cortisone, lever, nucleus, and planet….

In addition to being a useful reference book, this is a delightful book for children of any age to read at random, because of the charm and freshness of the author's information and speculation, and his sense of the essential reasonableness and simplicity of all science.