What is the best science magazine?

[agates]

For general science news/knowledge? I read them all when I can. What do you like or subscribe to and why?

[Dudley_DUright]

1. I like Scientific American the best

Good blend of accessibility and scientific accuracy. Discover is also pretty good.

[Surikat]

2. Depends on the level of your education...

Scientific American used to be good for a general reader, but it has got progressively politicized and it's quality had dropped since the Germans bought it. I dropped our subscription earlier this year after having kept it far longer than I ought.

Discover is good eye candy without a whole lot of content.

For general readers...

Wired is pretty good.
Science News is pretty good.

For the hardcore science buffs, however, I'd recommend...

Nature
Science
New Scientist

[agates]

3. I currently subscribe to

Wired, Science and Discover.

I bought a copy of Scientific American last month and was disappointed. Not what I remember.

Oh, and I'm a health care professional with an avid interest in science (especially natural science) and a master's degree in administration.

[Atlant]

11. You might enjoy "Science" (the AAAS magazine)

> I'm a health care professional with an avid interest in science
> (especially natural science)

You might enjoy "Science" (the AAAS magazine).

Atlant

[Atlant]

10. SA's politics are definitely liberal.

> Scientific American used to be good for a general reader,
> but it has got progressively politicized...

SA's politics are definitely liberal. in the sense that most thinking
scientists, for example, think that global climate change is real and
that it *ISN'T* a good thing. Similarly, most thinking scientists
aren't too keen on seeing Global Thermonuclear War, the death of
millions due to poverty and hunger, etc.

What was about their politics that you didn't like? or do you feel
that scientists ought to be "apolitical"*

Atlant


* "Don't say that he's hypocritical
Say rather that he's 'apolitical'.
'Vonce ze rockets are up,
who care's vhere ze come down;
zat's not my department!'
Says Werner Von Braun.

[Township75]

20. I dropped my subscription to SA as well.

So often is just seems to focus on stories related to physics and biology.
A friend of mine had Discover Mag and I enjoyed reading it more than SA.

[GATOR MONROE]

4. Atlantis Rising is da bomb...

STORIES OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN AMERICA,NANOBACTERIA,ELEMENT115,LEMURIA,THE BLUE STONES OF ENKI...

[hunter]

5. Science News is number one on my list.

If I could only get one science magazine Science News would be it.

I've had a subscription to Scientific American for almost thirty years. In the last few years the magazine has become much more political than it used to be, and I am enjoying that very much.

Natural History is another favarite of mine, and it was especially so when Stephen Jay Gould was writing for them. ( I still miss him... :cry: )

Sometimes I'll read Discover Magazine because it's very easy to look at, but often it leaves me unsatisfied. Writing in "laymen's terms" is an admirable art form, but sometimes I just want to see the naked math. If I'm interested in some popularized science topic I'll often find myself translating wordy explanations back into hard equations as I read, and that's distracting.

The World Wide Web has changed everything in science. It was invented by scientists for use by scientists. Anyone who is interested in a specific scientific topic should find out where it lives on the internet. Sometime you can get a front row seat there and watch how science is actually practiced by scientists.

[NNadir]

6. My interest in science definitely began with Scientific American.

Generally the magazine uses primary researchers authors and is very effective at editorially getting them to make their work accessible without actually dumbing it down.

I have not found everything in Scientific American to be uniformly wonderful, but it is still a great magazine. Some of my happiest memories involve reading it.

It is the only magazine in an airport that one can find without an eighteen year old bimbo (or a fading starlet trying to look eighteen) on the cover. Therefore I predict the magazine will go out of business.

[Dudley_DUright]

7. I hope not

but you are probably right. :-(

[GoBlue]

8. I like Science News for its variety

I think it's a good starting point to peak your interest. By its nature it doesn't tend to go into great depth

Science and Nature are heavy duty with the latest and greatest. As a biologist I can follow their articles in the biological sciences but not physics, chemistry, astrophysics etc.

[hunter]

12. A "digital" subscription to Science is $99 annually

http://www.sciencemag.org/subscriptions/digitalscience/index.htm

Other science journals have similar plans.

Our house used to be overflowing with science journals and magazines, but my wife and I now try to be electronic whenever we can. (Save a tree!)

We still get too many "dead tree" publications, but that's mostly because of our work. Some journals just won't stop -- I'm certain the advertisers are forcing them upon us.

I will always subscribe to the paper edition of Science News. I use it as an easy-reading kitchen table synopsis of stuff I can go out and find on the internet. It is often my lunch-time reading.

I usually have a copy of Scientific American, Wired, or ANALOG Science Fiction and Fact whenever I have to wait around somewhere.

[Oggy]

9. New Scientist

Is excellent. I don't know if you can get the paper version in the States, but here is a link to the online version.

http://www.newscientist.com/

[LibLabUK]

13. Gonna have to agree..

For uptodate science news and opinion, and some really great feature articles New Scientist is the best by far.

Scientific American imho just doesn't carry the same standard of coverage.

The NS website is great for breaking science news too.

[hunter]

14. I feel so old and useless...

:silly:

Yes, New Scientist is very good.

[DrWeird]

15. If you've outgrown Scientific American...

Try American Scientist. It's got the same sort of general science essays without dumbing it down.

I disagree with the other posters on the journal Science. Science is an actual technical journal. Although it does have an good news section, occasional book review, obit. etc. It's not worth the cover price or subscription. But check it out if you see it in a library.

[Mistwell]

16. Astronomy Magazines

For Astronomy magazines, there are basically two: 1) Astronomy, 2) Sky & Telescope. Sky & Telescope is slightly more technically oriented than Astronomy.

[agates]

17. Thanks everyone

You've given me some good ideas to broaden my reading. Appreciate the help!

[Malebolgia]

18. I like Discover.

[NNadir]

19. One of the most beautiful Science magazines was "The Sciences"

which was published by the New York Academy of Sciences.

It has now shut down. http://bric.postech.ac.kr/science/97now/01_6now/010605c.html

The articles were thoughtful and informative, but the illustrations were actually artwork that evoked rather than described the article.

I'll never forget when they included Delvaux's Phases of the Moon II with an article:



That painting said a lot to me about missing the beauty of the grand scheme by becoming lost in the study of the details.