New Scientist


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New Scientist

New Scientist cover, 18 December 2004
Editor Jeremy Webb
Categories science
Frequency weekly
Circulation 170,000 (June 2006) [1]
First issue 1956
Company Reed Business Information Ltd
Country  United Kingdom
Language British English
Website newscientist
ISSN 0262-4079

New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine and website covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier. New Scientist has maintained a website since 1996, publishing daily news. As well as covering current events and news from the scientific community, the magazine often features speculative articles, ranging from the technical to the philosophical.

It is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but it is widely read by both nonscientists and scientists as a way of keeping track of developments outside their own fields of study or areas of interest.[citation needed] Many science articles in the general press are based on its contents.[citation needed] The magazine also regularly includes features, news and commentary on environmental issues, such as climate change.

Based in London, New Scientist has U.S. and Australian editions as well as a British edition.

Contents

Magazine layout

As of January, 2008, the magazine is laid out as follows:

News

  • Editorial - often offering a perspective on scientific topics which are current political issues.
  • Upfront - a summary of major news placed in a scientific perspective.
  • This Week - short articles on reports or results presented this week.
  • In Brief - a summary of research news and discovery.

Technology

  • Recent advances and developments in technology.
  • Trends - showing how new technology is altering the way we live our lives.
New Scientist cover - 22 January 2005

Regulars

  • Comment and Analysis - Offering a personal commentary on a contemporary topic.
  • Letters
  • Essay or Interview - often with a pioneer of a scientific development or an influential political or business leader.
  • Perspectives/Second Sight - An alternative point of view on a pertinent piece of information.
  • Politics - Westminster or Washington diary, describing how science is done in the capital.
  • The Word - A short article explaining an intriguing scientific term.
  • Enigma - a mathematical puzzle
  • Histories - how our knowledge of a topic came to be.
  • The Insider - careers/courses section for professional scientists
  • Bookends - reviews.
  • Feedback - short commentaries on amusing topics; in the past this has featured "nominative determinism" (whereby someone has a name particularly appropriate for their job), product warning labels, and unusual units of measurements (such as the size of countries being measured in 'Frances', and iceberg sizes in 'Belgiums').
  • Last Word - write-in questions and answers about scientific phenomena.

Features

Website

Daily news articles are available on their official website as well as extracts from longer articles, with a subscription service required to view full content. There are also special reports on topics from nanotechnology to cancer. The magazine's weekly podcast, SciPod, was discontinued in October 2007.

In late 2004 NewScientist.com added a subdomain called "nomoresocks" (No More Socks) where visitors could search for, rate, and discuss innovative gifts. Usage of the site dropped considerably by June 2005, and the section has since been retired.

In mid-2006, New Scientist content was also made available to users of Newsvine, a community-driven social news web site.

According to Technorati, NewScientist.com is the 14th in the list of most-linked-to news organisations and the only science and technology specialist in the top 100.

Website layout

NewScientist.com is organized into several sub-sections. The main site includes a list of news stories and features, and below this reside the technology site, environment site and space site. The site also includes several blogs, on a range of topics from inventions to short sharp science.

Editorial staff

Jeremy Webb, the current editor of New Scientist, graduated in physics with solid state electronics from Exeter University before working for the BBC as a sound engineer and producer of science programmes for radio. An article in The Hindu newspaper explains his editorial approach [1]. Webb's promotion to Editor in Chief of the magazine is imminent. Roger Highfield, currently science editor of The Daily Telegraph, has been appointed as his successor [2].

EmDrive article controversy

In September 2006, New Scientist was criticised by science fiction writer Greg Egan, who wrote that "a sensationalist bent and a lack of basic knowledge by its writers" was making the magazine's coverage sufficiently unreliable "to constitute a real threat to the public understanding of science". In particular, Egan found himself "gobsmacked by the level of scientific illiteracy" in the magazine's coverage of Roger Shawyer's "electromagnetic drive", where New Scientist allowed the publication of "meaningless double-talk" designed to bypass a fatal objection to Shawyer's proposed space drive, namely that it violates the conservation of momentum. Egan urged others to write to New Scientist and pressure the magazine to raise its standards, instead of "squandering the opportunity that the magazine's circulation and prestige provides".[3].

The New Scientist editor replied defending the article, saying that it is "an ideas magazine - that means writing about hypotheses as well as theories"[4].

Spin-offs

New Scientist has compiled five books of selected questions and answers from the Last Word section of the magazine. In 1998 the book The Last Word (ISBN 978-0192861993) was published and was followed in 2000 by The Last Word 2' (ISBN 978-0192862044). In 2005 and 2006 respectively, the books Does Anything Eat Wasps? And 101 Other Questions (ISBN 978-1861979735) and Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions (ISBN 978-1861978769) were published. The latter was in part a repackaging of selected material from the first two books, following the unexpected mass-market success of Does Anything Eat Wasps?. In late 2007, the book How to Fossilise Your Hamster: And Other Amazing Experiments For The Armchair Scientist (ISBN 978-1846680441) was published. It was more interactive than previous "Last Word" books as it included instructions on how to carry out many of the experiments mentioned, often using everyday household items.

See also

References

  1. ^ New Scientist - From the Publisher: New Scientist magazine circulation keeps growing
  2. ^ Roger Highfield to edit New Scientist, guardian.co.uk
  3. ^ John C. Baez A Plea to Save New Scientist
  4. ^ Emdrive on trial

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