[Breakthroughs in Science is a collection] of brief (1,500 words) essays on the life and work of nearly 30 important scientists and technologists…. Style is odd: paragraphs and sentences seem often to have been artificially shortened and most unlike Asimov's usual excellent, smooth-flowing exposition. The essays themselves seem far too short for the amount of ground covered. The whole project bears a most un-Asimov-like air, and the result is an inferior work from an author whose true excellence can usually be taken for granted. The general juvenile encyclopedias give far better coverage of the subject treated here.

Theodore C. Hines, in his review of "Breakthroughs in Science," in Junior Libraries, an appendix to Library Journal (reprinted from the December, 1960 issue of Junior Libraries, published by R. R. Bowker Co./A Xerox Corporation; copyright © 1960), Vol. 6, No. 4, December, 1960, p. 58.