Birth of a Notion is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

. The story was written to celebrate the semicentennial (fiftieth anniversary) of the magazine Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...

in April 1976. It appeared in the 1976 collection The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories is a science fiction anthology written and edited by Isaac Asimov . Following the usual form for Asimov collections, it consists of eleven short stories and a poem surrounded by commentary describing how each came to be written...

.

Plot summary

Simeon Weill, a physicist, experiments with time travel

Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...

 and travels back to New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1925, where he meets Hugo Gernsback

Hugo Gernsback

Hugo Gernsback , born Hugo Gernsbacher, was a Luxembourgian American inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best remembered for publications that included the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with H. G...

, a science fiction author and Weill's hero.

Although only given a few minutes sitting with Gernsback on a park bench, he manages to convey to the author some of the scientific developments to come in the next fifty years. Just before being transported back to 1976, he suggests that Gernsback's proposed science fiction magazine be titled Amazing Stories.