Scientific American (informally abbreviated
SciAm or sometimes SA) is an American popular
science magazine.
Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein,
have contributed articles to it.
It is the oldest continuously published monthly
magazine in the United States (though it only
became monthly in 1921).
== History ==
Scientific American was founded by inventor
and publisher Rufus M. Porter in 1845 as a
four-page weekly newspaper.
Throughout its early years, much emphasis
was placed on reports of what was going on
at the U.S. Patent Office.
It also reported on a broad range of inventions
including perpetual motion machines, an 1860
device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln,
and the universal joint which now can be found
in nearly every automobile manufactured.
Current issues include a "this date in history"
section, featuring excerpts from articles
originally published 50, 100, and 150 years
earlier.
Topics include humorous incidents, wrong-headed
theories, and noteworthy advances in the history
of science and technology.
Porter sold the publication to Alfred Ely
Beach and Orson Desaix Munn a mere ten months
after founding it.
Until 1948, it remained owned by Munn & Company.
Under Munn's grandson, Orson Desaix Munn III,
it had evolved into something of a "workbench"
publication, similar to the twentieth-century
incarnation of Popular Science.
In the years after World War II, the magazine
fell into decline.
In 1948, three partners who were planning
on starting a new popular science magazine,
to be called The Sciences, purchased the assets
of the old Scientific American instead and
put its name on the designs they had created
for their new magazine.
Thus the partners—publisher Gerard Piel,
editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager
Donald H. Miller, Jr.—essentially created
a new magazine.
Miller retired in 1979, Flanagan and Piel
in 1984, when Gerard Piel's son Jonathan became
president and editor; circulation had grown
fifteen-fold since 1948.
In 1986, it was sold to the Holtzbrinck group
of Germany, which has owned it since.
In the fall of 2008, Scientific American was
put under the control of Nature Publishing
Group, a division of Holtzbrinck.Donald Miller
died in December 1998, Gerard Piel in September
2004 and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005.
Mariette DiChristina is the current editor-in-chief,
after John Rennie stepped down in June 2009.
== International editions ==
Scientific American published its first foreign
edition in 1890, the Spanish-language La America
Cientifica.
Publication was suspended in 1905, and another
63 years would pass before another foreign-language
edition appeared: In 1968, an Italian edition,
Le Scienze, was launched, and a Japanese edition,
Nikkei Science (日経サイエンス), followed
three years later.
A new Spanish edition, Investigación y Ciencia
was launched in Spain in 1976, followed by
a French edition, Pour la Science, in France
in 1977, and a German edition, Spektrum der
Wissenschaft, in Germany in 1978.
A Russian edition V Mire Nauki was launched
in the Soviet Union in 1983, and continues
in the present-day Russian Federation.
Kexue (科学, "Science" in Chinese), a simplified
Chinese edition launched in 1979, was the
first Western magazine published in the People's
Republic of China.
Founded in Chongqing, the simplified Chinese
magazine was transferred to Beijing in 2001.
Later in 2005, a newer edition, Global Science
(环球科学), was published instead of Kexue,
which shut down due to financial problems.
A traditional Chinese edition, known as 科學人
("Scientist" in Chinese), was introduced to
Taiwan in 2002.
The Hungarian edition Tudomány existed between
1984 and 1992.
In 1986, an Arabic edition, Oloom magazine
(مجلة العلوم), was published.
In 2002, a Portuguese edition was launched
in Brazil.
Today, Scientific American publishes 18 foreign-language
editions around the globe: Arabic, Brazilian
Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional
Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek,
Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian
(discontinued after 15 issues), Polish, Romanian,
Russian, and Spanish.
From 1902 to 1911, Scientific American supervised
the publication of the Encyclopedia Americana,
which during some of that period was known
as The Americana.
== First issue ==
It originally styled itself "The Advocate
of Industry and Enterprise" and "Journal of
Mechanical and other Improvements".
On the front page of the first issue was the
engraving of "Improved Rail-Road Cars".
The masthead had a commentary as follows:
Scientific American published every Thursday
morning at No. 11 Spruce Street, New York,
No. 16 State Street, Boston, and No. 2l Arcade
Philadelphia, (The principal office being
in New York) by Rufus Porter.
Each number will be furnished with from two
to five original Engravings, many of them
elegant, and illustrative of New Inventions,
Scientific Principles, and Curious Works;
and will contain, in high addition to the
most interesting news of passing events, general
notices of progress of Mechanical and other
Scientific Improvements; American and Foreign.
Improvements and Inventions; Catalogues of
American Patents; Scientific Essays, illustrative
of the principles of the sciences of Mechanics,
Chemistry, and Architecture: useful information
and instruction in various Arts and Trades;
Curious Philosophical Experiments; Miscellaneous
Intelligence, Music and Poetry.
This paper is especially entitled to the patronage
of Mechanics and Manufactures, being the only
paper in America, devoted to the interest
of those classes; but is particularly useful
to farmers, as it will not only appraise them
of improvements in agriculture implements,
But instruct them in various mechanical trades,
and guard them against impositions.
As a family newspaper, it will convey more
useful intelligence to children and young
people, than five times its cost in school
instruction.
Another important argument in favor of this
paper, is that it will be worth two dollars
at the end of the year when the volume is
complete, (Old volumes of the New York Mechanic,
being now worth double the original cost,
in cash.)
Terms: The Scientific American will be furnished
to subscribers at $2.00 per annum, - one dollar
in advance, and the balance in six months.
Five copies will be sent to one address six
months for four dollars in advance.
Any person procuring two or more subscribers,
will be entitled to a commission of 25 cents
each.
The commentary under the illustration gives
the flavor of its style at the time:
There is perhaps no mechanical subject, in
which improvement has advanced so rapidly,
within the last ten years, as that of railroad
passenger cars.
Let any person contrast the awkward and uncouth
cars of '35 with the superbly splendid long
cars now running on several of the eastern
roads, and he will find it difficult to convey
to a third party, a correct idea of the vast
extent of improvement.
Some of the most elegant cars of this class,
and which are of a capacity to accommodate
from sixty to eighty passengers, and run with
a steadiness hardly equaled by a steamboat
in still water, are manufactured by Davenport
& Bridges, at their establishment in Cambridgeport,
Mass.
The manufacturers have recently introduced
a variety of excellent improvements in the
construction of trucks, springs, and connections,
which are calculated to avoid atmospheric
resistance, secure safety and convenience,
and contribute ease and comfort to passengers,
while flying at the rate of 30 or 40 miles
per hour.
Also in the first issue is commentary on Signor
Muzio Muzzi's proposed device for aerial navigation.
== Editors ==
Rufus M. Porter (1792–1884), first editor
(1845-1847)
Orson Desaix Munn (1824-1907), second editor
(1847-1907)
Charles Allen Munn(1859-1924), third editor
(1907–1924)
Orson Desaix Munn II (1883-1958), fourth editor
(1924-1947)
Dennis Flanagan (1919–2005), fifth editor
(1947-1984).
Jonathan Piel, sixth editor June 1984 through
August 1994
John Rennie, seventh editor-in-chief, 1994–2009
Mariette DiChristina, eighth editor-in-chief,
appointed December 2009
== Special issues ==
Communications, Computers, and Networks - September
1991
== Scientific American 50 award ==
The Scientific American 50 award was started
in 2002 to recognize contributions to science
and technology during the magazine's previous
year.
The magazine's 50 awards cover many categories
including agriculture, communications, defence,
environment, and medical diagnostics.
The complete list of each year's winners appear
in the December issue of the magazine, as
well as on the magazine's web site.
== Website ==
In March 1996, Scientific American launched
its own website that includes articles from
current and past issues, online-only features,
daily news, weird science, special reports,
trivia, "Scidoku" and more.
== Columns ==
Notable features have included:
Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games column
Douglas Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas
The Amateur Scientist column
A.K.
Dewdney's Computer Recreations column
Michael Shermer's Skeptic column
== Television ==
From 1990 to 2005 Scientific American produced
a television program on PBS called Scientific
American Frontiers with hosts Woodie Flowers
and Alan Alda.
== Books ==
From 1983 to 1997, Scientific American has
produced an encyclopedia set of volumes from
their publishing division, the Scientific
American Library.
These books were not sold in retail stores,
but as a Book of the Month Club selection
priced from $24.95 to $32.95.
Topics covered dozens of areas of scientific
knowledge and included in-depth essays on:
The Animal Mind; Atmosphere, Climate, and
Change; Beyond the Third Dimension; Cosmic
Clouds; Cycles of Life • Civilization and
the Biosphere; The Discovery Of Subatomic
Particles; Diversity and the Tropical Rain
Forest; Earthquakes and Geological Discovery;
Exploring Planetary Worlds; Gravity's Fatal
Attraction; Fire; Fossils And The History
Of Life; From Quarks to the Cosmos; A Guided
Tour Of The Living Cell; Human Diversity;
Perception; The Solar System; Sun and Earth;
The Science of Words (Linguistics); The Science
Of Musical Sound; The Second Law (of Thermodynamics);
Stars; Supercomputing and the Transformation
of Science.Scientific American launched a
publishing imprint in 2010 in partnership
with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
DiChristina, Mariette (2017).
Scientific American - The Science Behind the
Debates.
Special Collector's Edition.
Winter 2017/2018.
Scientific American.
A "collection of updated or adapted Scientific
American articles and shorter pieces...
". According to editor Andrea Gawrylewski
'The reader will quickly notice a common theme.
... there really is no debate where the science
is concerned'".
Contributors include Seth Shostak, Paul Offit,
Richard Dawkins and Harriet Hall.
== Scientific and political debate ==
In April 1950, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
ordered Scientific American to cease publication
of an issue containing an article by Hans
Bethe that appeared to reveal classified information
about the thermonuclear hydrogen bomb.
Subsequent review of the material determined
that the AEC had overreacted.
The incident was important for the "new" Scientific
American's history, as the AEC's decision
to burn 3000 copies of an early press-run
of the magazine containing the offending material
appeared to be "book burning in a free society"
when publisher Gerard Piel leaked the incident
to the press.In its January 2002 issue, Scientific
American published a series of criticisms
of the Bjørn Lomborg book The Skeptical Environmentalist.
Cato Institute fellow Patrick J. Michaels
said the attacks came because the book "threatens
billions of taxpayer dollars that go into
the global change kitty every year."
Journalist Ronald Bailey called the criticism
"disturbing" and "dishonest", writing, "The
subhead of the review section, 'Science defends
itself against The Skeptical Environmentalist,'
gives the show away: Religious and political
views need to defend themselves against criticism,
but science is supposed to be a process for
determining the facts."The May 2007 issue
featured a column by Michael Shermer calling
for a United States pullout from the Iraq
War.
In response, Wall Street Journal online columnist
James Taranto jokingly called Scientific American
"a liberal political magazine".The publisher
was criticized in 2009 when it notified collegiate
libraries that yearly subscription prices
for the magazine would increase by nearly
500% for print and 50% for online access to
$1500 yearly.An editorial in the September
2016 issue of Scientific American attacked
U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump for
alleged "anti-science" attitudes and rhetoric.
This marked the first time that the publication
forayed into commenting on U.S. presidential
politics.
== Awards ==
2010: IQ Award for the German edition Spektrum
der Wissenschaft
== Top 10 Science Stories of the Year ==
2011: The Japan Tsunami and Nuclear CrisisTechnology
Fuels the Arab Spring
Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos?
Record-Setting Extreme Weather
A Hint of Higgs
The End of the Space Shuttle Program
The Death of Steve Jobs
Gene Therapy Makes a Comeback
The Sun Sets on Solyndra
IBM's Watson Computer Wins on Jeopardy!
2012: Sandy Devastates the U.S. Northeastern
CoastThe Higgs Boson Is Detected
NASA's Curiosity Rover Lands on Mars
Publication of the ENCODE Encyclopedia: A
Milestone in Genome Research
"Obamacare" (Mostly) Upheld by Supreme Court
Record Meltdown of Arctic Sea Ice
Pandemic Avian Flu Genes Made Public
Bold, Private Efforts Step into Roles Vacated
by NASA
Starvation Diet Fails to Boost Longevity
Daredevils Reach New Highs and Lows
2013: U.S. Sequestration: A Body Blow to ScienceAtmospheric
CO2 Reaches a Historical High: 400 Parts per
Million
Meteor Explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia
Typhoon Haiyan, the Strongest Storm Known
to Make Landfall
Recovery of Oldest Human DNA
The First Neutrinos from Outside the Solar
System
Confirmed: Fracking and Related Operations
Cause Earthquakes
Gene Therapy Achieves Major Success
Drones Fly Toward Wide Commercial Use, Raising
New Concerns
Moon Shot to the Head: Global Initiatives
Target the Brain
2014: The Ebola OutbreakFirst Touchdown on
a Comet
U.S. and China in Historic Climate Deal
Big Bang Gravitational Waves—or Not
Worst Drought in Millennium Hits California
Catastrophes Tarnish Commercial Spaceflight
Botched Handling of Deadly Germs at U.S. Labs
First Synthetic Chromosome of Yeast Made
Cyber Attacks Spell the End of Magnetic-Stripe
Credit Cards
Symbolic Thought Shown to Exist in Other Human
Species
2015: Year of the Dwarf Planets and New Views
of MarsThe CRISPR Revolution Gains Momentum
Massive Data Breach Highlights Widespread
Cybersecurity
Record Climate Change
Newly Discovered Human Raises Questions about
our Past
Advances in Concussion Science
Volkswagen Sabotages "Clean" Diesel
A Century of General Relativity
Drones Fly onto Regulators' Radar
New Discoveries about The Immune System Impacts
the Brain (Tie)
The Uncharted Territory of Ebola (Tie)
== Controversy ==
In 2013, Danielle N. Lee, a female scientist
who blogged at Scientific American, was called
a "whore" in an email by an editor at the
science website Biology Online after refusing
to write professional content without compensation.
When Lee, outraged about the email, wrote
a rebuttal on her Scientific American blog,
the editor-in-chief of Scientific American,
Mariette DiChristina, removed the post, sparking
an outrage by supporters of Lee.
While DiChristina cited legal reasons for
removing the blog, others criticized her for
censoring Lee.
The editor at Biology Online was fired after
the incident.The controversy widened in the
ensuing days.
The magazine's blog editor, Bora Zivkovic,
was the subject of allegations of sexual harassment
by another blogger, Monica Byrne.
Although the alleged incident had occurred
about a year earlier, editor Mariette DiChristina
informed readers that the incident had been
investigated and resolved to Ms. Byrne's satisfaction.
However, the incident involving Dr. Lee had
prompted Ms. Byrne to reveal the identity
of Zivkovic, following the latter's support
of Dr. Lee.
Zivkovic responded on Twitter and his own
blog, admitting the incident with Ms. Byrne
had taken place.
His blog post apologized to Ms. Byrne, and
referred to the incident as "singular", stating
that his behavior was not "engaged in before
or since."Due to the allegations, Zivkovic
resigned from the board of Science Online,
the popular science blogging conference that
he helped establish.
Following Zivkovic's admission, several prominent
female bloggers, including other bloggers
for the magazine, wrote their own accounts
that contradicted Zivkovic's assertions, alleging
additional incidents of sexual harassment.
A day after these new revelations, Zivkovic
resigned his position at Scientific American,
according to a press release from the magazine.
== See also ==
Albert Graham Ingalls, former editor and author
of an amateur astronomy column
Amos Root
New Scientist
Scientific American Mind
Discover (magazine)
American Scientist
14145 Sciam, asteroid named after Scientific
American
== References ==
=== Specific ===
=== General ===
== External links ==
Online edition of Scientific American with
partially free access to the current issue
Online archive (not free) of the issues from
1993 to the present
Online archive of the issues before 1930,
with indices
Online archive of Scientific American between
1846 and 1869, from Cornell University
Online archive of Series 1 of Scientific American
between 1845 and 1859 (Volumes 1 - 14)
Online archive of Series 2 of Scientific American
between 1859 and 1861 (Volumes 1 - 4)
Online archive of the covers of more than
a thousand issues from circa 1872 to 1931
Works by or about Scientific American at Internet
Archive
Works by Scientific American at LibriVox (public
domain audiobooks)
