It's a weird and amazing world out there! (Focus)

Name: DancingCopper

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Product:	Focus
Date:	29/11/08 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to understand, genuinely informative, well written and stunning pictures

Disadvantages: Not always easy to find - I wish shops would stop hiding the intelligent stuff

Up until my GCSEs I loved science, even telling one of my primary school teachers I was going to be an inventor! I needed to know how things worked and why. Like Bill Bryson, I was irrationally concerned with the thought that when a plug is removed from a socket, what stops the electricity leaking out?

GCSEs have a habit of killing enthusiasm and inspiration - not the teachers' fault, just the tune they have to dance to. With an inability to understand molecular equations, I lost interest in Chemistry, and the only thing I accomplished in Physics was making a pair of roller-skates out of wires from the electronics kit and wooden trucks used to measure velocity.

I got my fix from Tomorrow's World. This was science I could and wanted to understand - glimpses of a future I wanted to embrace, with driver-free cars celebrated alongside robotic bottle-openers that didn't work. Then, in 2003, to the BBC's shame, they scrapped it. No more science for me, not unless I wanted dry or doom-laden 60-minute lectures. The closest I got was hearing Tom Lehrer's song about the periodic table.

Then the little boffin inside my head was resuscitated on a train journey, when I discovered Focus magazine, promising me Science, Technology and Future. As an aside, every time you take a long train journey buy a magazine you haven't read before. As well as Focus, I have found Writing magazine, Total Film and the Fortean Times this way, informing me of the useful, amazing or plain weird.

Focus is a monthly magazine, available from WH Smiths and other newsagents for £3.60. It is an excellent magazine for many reasons. First, it never covers a subject in too much detail, preventing you getting bogged down in dry knowledge and pure science. As with my GCSE studies, such material leaves me floundering and I quickly lose interest. When I want to explore a subject further, I can refer to web links provided for many of the articles.

Each issue covers many topics, some as extended articles, others as no more than a paragraph in a text box. Sometimes whole issues are shaped around a common theme, such as modern crime detection, but each article will look at a different aspect in a different way, meaning my curiosity is fuelled rather than smothered.

The quality of the magazine is superb, printed on glossy paper with amazing pictures. Photography is as important as the articles and each issue has a few pages at the front just for incredible pictures. These could range from a space-eye view of the Great Wall of China to a close-up of the crawler that carries Space Shuttles. Considerable care is obviously given to the selection of the pictures used with stunning photography being complemented by simple yet informative diagrams.

Memorable features I have read include the science of the supernatural, the ten most secure buildings in the world, how much of science fiction is achievable and what would happen if the human race vanished over night. Focus is very good at matching its content to the scientific interests and issues of the time. Endorsed by the BBC, the magazine provides listings of upcoming television and radio programs with a degree of scientific interest. There are similar listings for websites, software and books. These are all given a rating out of five.

Having the science of global warming or the next generation of exercise products explained to me in bite-size portions satisfies my curiosity and keeps me looking for the keys to the universe, on my terms.

I was always told that a good teacher makes you more inquisitive rather than merely answering the questions you already have. My biology teacher didn't stick to the syllabus, he thought it was boring and there was more amazing stuff out there. Through him I learnt about Shackleton, how rifles work and how to spin a cricket ball - only got a D for GCSE, but I still remember what he taught me.

Focus magazine does this for me and, until they bring back Tomorrow's World, it's the best thing out there. HINT, HINT!

Summary: Enough science to amaze you, not enough to lose you in jargon.