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| | Binding: | Magazine | | Publisher: | Scientific American | | Number of Issues: | 12 Issues | | First Issue Lead Time: | 6-10 weeks | | Sales Rank: | 100th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
This magazine is designed for technically educated professionals and managers who have a positive predisposition to read about, get involved with and act on a broad range of the physical and social sciences. Its articles and features anticipate what the breakthroughs and the news will be in a society increasingly dependent upon scientific and technological advances. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 27 reviews)
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To socialize science by W. Aldrich (SCOTTSBORO, AL, US)  1 Stars
November 27, 2009
Throughout the sixties and seventies this magazine, this Scientific American, played a significant role in the development of budding critical thinkers. At the least it was a periodical that satisified thoughtful, logical thinkers. Thinkers that had been abandon by the dry, inaccurate textbooks provided by the bureaucratic, so-called educational boards that served no other function but to pander to their political interests. At most it served as a treatise of legitimate scientific thought. This once revered, lay, scientific journal that with some effort could be understood by those of us that were ignorant, but interested, has now debased itself into a gooey morass of popular political pap. If you remember it as an enjoyable, informative, periodical that for decades served the purpose of satisfying your thirst for lay scientific knowledge, it is no longer. It now serves the egos of the mediocre thinkers that believe their view of existance should be yours.
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Scientific American seems to have a left-leaning agenda. by John Secord (Iowa)  5 Stars
November 22, 2009
I have been a subscriber for more than twenty years, but for several years now I have seen the magazine moving more and more to the left. Where climate change is concerned the staff of S A appears to consider it settled that human civilization is responsible. I never see any articles that consider evidence such as the earth goes through periodic cooling and warming phases or that the sun is going through a warm phase (as evidenced by the fact that Mars is getting warmer, too).
I would prefer to see objective evidence on both sides rather than articles that presuppose, when there is evidence to the contrary, that one side of the argument is correct.
I will let my subscription expire and find a source of objective, hard, science.
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From science to cupcakes; sad decline of an institution by Doctor.Generosity (New England) 1 Stars
November 22, 2009
Witnessing the editorial deterioration of Scientific American over the years has been a sad disappointment. I began to read SA in my high school library nearly fifty years ago. Throughout the 60' and 70s' it was a serious and dignified journal with explanations by major scientists of their own work. The Amateur Scientist and Mathematical Recreations columns had many devotees. Sometime in the 90's SA was taken over by a new crowd, the articles now written by journalists, and it became strongly politicized, with a shrill liberal agenda. They turned away from hard science and devoted more pages to psychology and social issues, often with a clear bias attached. Columnists Steve Mirsky and Michael Shermer are in no way great minds, just cranks whose monthly "thoughts" are not worth the paper (recently Mirsky wasted two pages on musings whether he personally liked the Kindle or not). Sometimes it seemed that entire issues were consumed with the evolution / creationist debate, not bringing any new scientific insights as they could and should have done, just elitist religion-bashing and outright ridicule of the "stupid" creationists.
During most of this recent phase the editor was John Rennie, a mediocre mind who had no business leading such an important institution. His guidance of the whole thing led it down a soft and "relevant" sinkhole which dissipated fifty years of prestige. Very sad. The bottom point so far has been the September, 2009 issue where the magazine's hack staff (not a panel of top scientists) took it upon themselves to choose the greatest "origins" in the history of the universe. Among their choices; Scotch tape, the vibrator (female sex toy), the paper clip, intermittent windshield wipers, and cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes. The venerable Scientific American, continuously published for 160 years, chose the cupcake as one of the most important innovations of all time. What a pack of idiots.
After forty years of subscribing, I will not renew. Others who will not be renewing include your local library - recently after being sold to the Nature Group, Scientific Amercan announced they were raising their subscription price to libraries by a factor of 10X - as if they were a major archival research journal rather than a pop-science disposable like Psychology Today. These people have lost all perspective - dissipating the quality of their product while arrogantly raising the price.
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Not as good as it used to be, yet still the best. by Michigoon (Mid-MI) 5 Stars
October 13, 2009
Scientific American is a great magazine. The current format is a blend of public-readable writing and real science- and yes there's still plenty of real science in the pages. There's less formulas and math than there used to be- then again, most of the formulas and mathematics are now trademarked properties of megacorporations anyway, so the change isn't only one of style.
In these pages, you'll get lots of information and plenty of world view. From the large hadron collider to conflicts between Newtonian and quantum physics to the recent findings of space probes to the continues exploration of genetics... and yes to "popular" issues like the use of Facebook in the Iranian elections. In a nation that desperately needs more science education, this magazine should be required reading. The magazine does in fact include more populist articles and less true scientific writers than it once did, but the mix is not wholly offensive and you're still certain to find at least some articles that will speak way above your head on some issue or another. Personally, I can't stomach any part of Popular Mechanics or Discover or any of the other "technical" (re: Science by MTV) magazines anymore, but I still find the bulk of Scientific American entirely worthwhile.
Many reviewers say that Scientific American has an editorial bias toward liberal ideals. These comments say more about the current political divide in America than anything about the magazine itself. Like it or not, the current conservative party in America is decidedly anti-science, and if you browse any truly conservative media of the moment you'll likely see the word "scientist" used like a curse word (and usually not far an association to socialist or totalitarian regimes). Until the day when these politics become less extreme, a scientific American probably is a liberal American, and the magazine follows as such.
As a sidenote, anyone who thinks the magazine has never been political needs to puruise the section with snippets from old issues. Writers from bygone eras didn't just inject political beliefs, they often stated them in black-and-white and very plain terms. Maybe there's an argument to be had that the current writers should do the same, but the fact is that the magazine has always included a certain amount of political content between its pages.
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If you can get past the politics...... by S. M. Floyd (Atlanta, GA)  2 Stars
September 11, 2009
I read SciAm for many years but had to end my subscription because I could no longer stomach the political slant.
If you can get past the politics, or perhaps agree with it, then this is a pretty good magazine for the casual scientist.
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