A fantastic magazine and a brilliant resource! (New Scientist)

Member Name: Chaos-Theory

Product:	New Scientist
Date:	30/04/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient, readable and interesting.

Disadvantages: Can be a little pricey.

I don't know what this says about me... but I've been subscribing to New Scientist for well over a decade now! I'm not a scientist, nor a student, nor even all that bright, technically speaking! I do rather suffer from a little thing called curiosity, however, and New Scientist is brilliant for people who are cursed with this terrible affliction!

I've been interested in science since I was a child, probably stemming from my interest in science fiction. I used to love Omni magazine (if there is anyone else out there as old and wrinkled as me, you might remember what a wonderful mix of science fact and science fiction Omni was). New Scientist magazine is perhaps not quite as much fun as Omni was, although to be fair, it does have its lighter moments.

I would say the magazine is primarily aimed at university students and graduates already working in science (the magazine does regular jobs features with entire sections devoted to job adverts and special features for graduates). Sometimes I do feel the editorial attitude is a little elitist, which I never felt with Omni. Perhaps it's not fair to compare New Scientist with Omni, as they are clearly aimed at different audiences. Nevertheless, there is much to interest the intelligent layperson, and judging from the letters page, I am not the only non-scientist to read the magazine.

New Scientist is filled with news features with a scientific slant, and articles on whatever is new in science and technology, and much more. Despite what I said about the sometimes elitist attitude, the articles are actually very readable and quite easy for the interested non-scientist to understand. It's always my first port of call when I am looking for truly authoritative and reliable information.

I suppose, in simple terms, I have always viewed New Scientist was a sort of paper version of Tomorrow's World (again, you'll only know what I'm talking about if you are old enough to remember the programme!). Nowadays, I suppose I'd say it's like a printed version of the Discovery Channel! It's so much more interesting than reading about the latest celebrity break-up. The magazine includes lots of short, half page articles, on new developments and news stories. There are also some fascinating articles which run to four or five pages, which give more detail on, say, a scientific study about (again just as an example), the formation of memories, or ageing. There is also a really interesting section called Histories, which tells a story of a historical scientific mystery or discovery. This is one of my favourite sections.

For me, however, the very best sections in New Scientist are the Feedback and Last Word pages - these are right at the very back of the magazine, so I'm afraid I tend to start there and only go to the front after I've read those bits! Feedback is a page of humorous snippets, often sent in by readers, and deals with (for example) advertising blurbs which try to sound authoritative but trip themselves up by using dodgy scientific terms, or ambiguous (and therefore humorous) signs and notices. The Last Word is a brilliant feature where readers send in questions, and other readers try to answer them. I remember a wonderful one about Brocken spectres and my personal favourite, was where people discussed the old wives tale about warm water freezing faster than cold (yes, in some cases, it's true!) The contents of The Last Word columns have been collected together to create a number of books, including Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? and Does Anything Eat Wasps?

The magazine has an online website, which is invaluable for searching the archives of old issues of the magazine. There are so many times I suddenly remember a snippet of information from an article I read a few months ago, but just can't remember the details, so I want to read it again. The search facility is really good, providing I can remember the correct words to use. Most of the time I do find the article I was looking for, although it sometimes takes a while. For example, my daughter was concerned one of her school friends had told her that clicking her knuckles would lead to arthritis. I remembered and article from New Scientist a few months earlier, which disputed this. So I logged on and began to search. Now, this is where I hit problems. I searched for 'knuckles' and 'click' or 'clicking', or 'fingers' and 'clicking' and so on. It took ages, but I eventually found the article and discovered I should have used the word 'cracking' instead of 'clicking'! So, it does work, you just have to have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for. I also tend to get distracted along the way by other, equally interesting, articles brought up by the search.

The entire magazine is now available online and it's the best place to go if you want absolute up to the minute information, since the paper version is only published once a week. They also send out regular emails with lots more interesting articles. Personally I prefer to read New Scientist in its printed form, I find it more comfortable that way (it's not easy to snuggle up in bed with a computer screen!).

This is a weekly magazine, costing £3.15 per issue at present (Spring 2009). However, if you subscribe you can often find a good discount advertised inside the magazine, so you will end up paying just over £20 per quarter.

Summary: My favourite magazine!