 Cover of a 1905 issue | |
| Discipline | Popular science |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publication details | |
| History | Since August 28, 1845; 180 years ago (1845-08-28) |
| Publisher | Springer Nature (United States) |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Yes | |
| 3.1 (2023) | |
| Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt  ) | |
| ISO 4 | Sci. Am. |
| Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L | |
| ISSN | 0036-8733 |
| LCCN | sf92091111 |
| OCLC no. | 796985030 |
| Links | |
Scientific American, informally abbreviatedSciAm or sometimesSA, is an Americanpopular science magazine. Many scientists, includingAlbert Einstein andNikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150Nobel Prize-winners having been featured since its inception.[2]
In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.Scientific American is owned bySpringer Nature, which is a subsidiary ofHoltzbrinck Publishing Group.
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Scientific American was founded by inventor and publisherRufus Porter in 1845[4] as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large-format New York City newspaper was released on August 28, 1845.[5]
Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at theU.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions includingperpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels byAbraham Lincoln, and theuniversal 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. It started as a weekly publication in August 1845 before turning into a monthly in November 1921.[6]
Porter sold the publication toAlfred Ely Beach, son of media magnateMoses Yale Beach, andOrson Desaix Munn, a mere ten months after founding it. Editors and co-owners from theYale family includedFrederick C. Beach and his son,Stanley Yale Beach, and from the Munn family,Charles Allen Munn and his nephew,Orson Desaix Munn II.[7] Until 1948, it remained owned by the families underMunn & Company.[4] Under Orson Munn's grandson, Orson Desaix Munn III, it had evolved into something of a "workbench" publication, similar to the 20th-century incarnation ofPopular 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 calledThe Sciences, purchased the assets of the oldScientific American instead and put its name on the designs they had created for their new magazine. Thus the partners—publisherGerard Piel, editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager Donald H. Miller Jr. essentially created a new magazine.[8] 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 theHoltzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany, which has owned it until theSpringer-Nature merger. In the fall of 2008,Scientific American was put under the control of Holtzbrinck'sNature Publishing Group division.[9]
Donald Miller died in December 1998,[10] Gerard Piel in September 2004 and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005.Mariette DiChristina became editor-in-chief afterJohn Rennie stepped down in June 2009,[9] and stepped down herself in September 2019. In April 2020,Laura Helmuth assumed the role ofeditor-in-chief.
The magazine is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.[11][12]
In 2009, the publisher notified collegiate libraries that yearly subscription prices for the magazine would increase by nearly 500% for print and 50% for online access to $1,500 yearly.[13]
Offices of theScientific American have included 37Park Row inManhattan and theWoolworth Building in 1915 when it was just finished two years earlier in 1913.[3] The Woolworth Building was at the time one of the first skyscrapers in the city and the tallest one in the world.[3]
Scientific American published its first foreign-language edition in 1890 inSpanish, titledLa América Científica é Industrial, but ended sometime in the early 1900s.[14] In 1968, the Italian-language edition,Le Scienze,[15] was launched followed by the Japanese edition,日経サイエンス (transliteration:Nikkei Science) in 1971.[16]
Subsequent international editions included the Spanish-language revival forSpain,Inveestigación y Ciencia ("Investigation and Science") in 1976, theFrenchPour la Science ("For Science") in 1977, theGermanSpektrum der Wissenschaft ("Spectrum of Science") in 1978, as well as theRussianV Mire Nauki (Russian: В мире науки; "In the world of science").[17]
ThePolish edition, published by Prószyński Media, began in 1991 under the nameŚwiat Nauki ("World of Science").[17]
In 2002, theTaiwanese edition,Scientist (traditional Chinese: 科學人), was established inTaipei.That same year, the German-language edition,Spektrum der Wissenschaft, introducedGehirn & Geist ("Brain & Mind"), focusing on psychology and neuroscience.[17]
In Italy,Mente & Cervello ("Mind & Brain") launched in 2003, complementing the olderLe Scienze. TheDutch edition debuted in 2003, published by Cascade inAntwerp.[17]
In 2013,Danielle N. Lee, a female scientist who blogged atScientific American, was called a "whore" in an email by an editor at the science websiteBiology Online after refusing to write professional content without compensation.[24] Lee wrote a response to the email and posted it on theScientific American blog.[25] Then editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina removed Lee's post, citing legal reasons for removing the blog.[26] The editor atBiology Online was fired after the incident.[27]
The controversy widened in the ensuing days. The magazine's blog editor, Bora Zivkovic, was the subject of allegations ofsexual harassment by another blogger, Monica Byrne.[28][29] Although the alleged incident had occurred about a year earlier, editor Mariette DiChristina informed readers that the incident had been investigated and resolved to Byrne's satisfaction.[30] However, the incident involving Lee had prompted Byrne to reveal the identity of Zivkovic, following the latter's support of Lee. Zivkovic admitted the incident with Byrne had taken place.[31] He apologized to Byrne, and referred to the incident as "singular", stating that his behavior was not "engaged in before or since."[31]
Zivkovic resigned from the board ofScience Online, the popular science blogging conference that he co-founded with Anton Zuiker.[32] Following Zivkovic's admission, several female bloggers, including other bloggers for the magazine, wrote their own accounts, alleging additional incidents of sexual harassment, although none of these accounts were independently investigated.[33][34][35] A day after these new revelations, Zivkovic resigned from his position atScientific American.[36][37]
Scientific American has published numerous special editions over the years, focusing on various scientific topics.[38] These editions are typically released quarterly and cover themes such asspace settlement by humans,evolution,economics, andclimate change. For example, the March 2024, (volume 33, issue 1s), included articles with themes about space exploration as well as humansexual division of labor anddifferentiation among early-humanhunter-gatherers.”[39] Similarly, the June 2024 edition, (volume 33, issue 2s), featured pieces on analyzing the "cosmic nothing" and issues in physics raised often by thecosmological constant.[40]
These special editions are available to subscribers and can be accessed through Scientific American’s archives. The magazine’s archive provides a comprehensive list of past issues, including special editions, dating back to its inception in 1845.[41]
TheScientific 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, defense, 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.
In March 1996, Scientific American launched its own website that included articles from current and past issues, online-only features, daily news, special reports, and trivia, among other things.[citation needed] The website introduced apaywall in April 2019, with readers able to view a few articles for free each month.[42]
Notable features have included:
From 1990 to 2005Scientific American produced a television program onPBS calledScientific American Frontiers with hostsWoodie Flowers[43] andAlan Alda.[44]
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From 1983 to 1997,Scientific American has produced an encyclopedia set of volumes from their publishing division, theScientific American Library. These books were not sold in retail stores, but as aBook 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: TheAnimal 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.[45]
Scientific American launched a publishing imprint in 2010 in partnership withFarrar, Straus and Giroux.[46]
In April 1950, the U.S.Atomic Energy Commission orderedScientific American to cease publication of an issue containing an article byHans Bethe that appeared to reveal classified information about the thermonuclearhydrogen 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 3,000 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.[48]
In the October 2020 issue of the magazine, it endorsedJoe Biden for the2020 presidential election, citingDonald Trump's rejection of scientific evidence, especially during theCOVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[49][50] In the column reporting the endorsement, the magazine's editors said, "Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly."[51] In September 2024 and for the second time in its history, for the same reason,Scientific American endorsedKamala Harris for the2024 United States presidential election.[52]
In November 2024, editor-in-chiefLaura Helmuth resigned fromScientific American following an apology for a social media post in which she characterized somesupporting Trump as fascists.[23] JournalistJesse Singal objected to what he viewed as the magazine's shift towards social justice politics at the expense of its scientific credibility.[53]
Miller-Donald H., Jr. Vice President and General Manager of the magazine Scientific American for 32 years until his retirement in 1979. Died on December 22, at home in Chappaqua, NY. He was 84. Survived by his wife of 50 years, Claire; children Linda Itkin, Geoff Kaufman, Sheila Miller Bernson, Bruce Miller, Meredith Davis, and Donald H. Miller, M.D.; nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild; and brother Douglas H. Miller. The memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 30, at 2 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco, NY.
Interestingly, the first Scientific American translated edition was started when the magazine was already 45 years old—in 1890!—La América Científica é Industrial. That edition was eventually folded, and it was some decades before we firmly established a series of translations that we see today.
Le Scienze è l' edizione italiana di Scientific American, la più prestigiosa rivista di divulgazione scientifica del mondo; quella italiana è stata la prima edizione internazionale, nel 1968.[Le Scienze is the Italian edition of Scientific American, the most prestigious popular science magazine in the world; the Italian one was the first international edition, in 1968.]
Present editor and publisher (third in the line) is Orson Desaix Munn, 61, a patent lawyer, crack bird hunter and fisherman, rumba fancier, familiar figure in Manhattan café society.
Dennis Flanagan, who as editor ofScientific American magazine helped foster science writing for the general reader, died at his home in Manhattan on Friday. He was 85. The cause of death was prostate cancer, according to his wife, Barbara Williams Flanagan. Mr. Flanagan, who worked atScientific American for more than three decades beginning in 1947, teamed editors directly with working scientists, publishing pieces by leading figures like Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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