Popular Science Magazine

Popular Science
P.O. Box 62456
Tampa, FL 33662-4568
Phone: 800-289-9399
Web: www.popsci.com/customerservice

I have always delved into the minutia of how things work. This natural curiosity grew from, where I don't know where it comes from exactly. Perhaps it part of the male brain, or perhaps just part of mine; I like to take things apart and see how they work. It's not enough to know that if I pay my electric bill on time, when I flick on a light switch I will have light; I want to know how the electricity is generated and how it got to the switch. That same curiosity led me to my current profession as an Information Technology professional. What started out as a hobby, a need to know how computers worked, has turned into a second career for me.

All of this explains why I subscribe to and read Popular ScienceMagazine (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/), whose slogan is The Future Is Now. As magazines go, Popular Science is a pretty thin rag, but that does not mean the monthly is not packed with all manner of useful and informative information. it does mean that the magazine is not (over) burdened with page after page of annoying advertising. There is of course advertising, a magazine could not survive without it, but is it not overly intrusive and overbearing.

Regular sections in the magazine include:

o Features: feature length articles;
o Megapixels
o What's New
o Headlines
o How 2.0
o FYI
o Other Stuff: includes Letters, and editor's note.

My favorite section is What's New; I tend to read it first every month. Each section is filled with six or seven pages of text and illustrations one the latest and greatest new products and prototypes from across the world in the science, general technology and astronomy fields. The latest issue featured a big bold article on the future of police equipment, called Cop Tech; Inside The Police R&R Lab. A flashy title to be sure, but is backed up with quality writing as well as pictures and or images of the equipment and gadgets discussed in the article.

Other articles in this month's (February 2007) magazine include:

o Protect Everything; the future of personal security.
o Journey From The Center of The Earth; Popsci Innovator
o It Came From The Lab; Uncommon Knowledge
o Fly The Friendly Seas; Concepts & Prototypes

The articles for the most part are well written, concise, and comprehensive. Aside from the feature articles, the most informative portion of the magazine are the one or two page explanation features wherein some present or future gadget is explained, usually accompanied by an illustration. For example on page 27 of this month's issue under the Headlines section the magazine explains in great detail—complete with illustration—how the Department of Energy is building a greener coal plant, that will extract Hydrogen—called Syngas—from water and use it to produce electricity. The coal is used in the process and the Carbon it creates as a by-product is pumped underground into a saline solution. The item was short, but came away from it with a thorough understanding of a process I had heretofore never heard of.

I have only one minor quibble with the magazine: almost one third of the back half of the monthly is given over to adverting. Not the expensive glossy, glamorous kind, but the shady little, not so sure you can thrust what their advertising kind found is too many other wise respectable magazines.

Subscriptions

Popular Science Magazine is published by Time 4 Media. In addition to the English language edition, Popular Science is also published in China, Israel, Korea and Mexico. Book shelf sells for a cover price of $3.99 US, Canada $4.99, while a 12-month subscription will set you back $15.95 and a 24-month subscription checks in at 21.95. If you are doing the math—and you should—that's a 77% saving off the single copy price. You might be able to find a better deal at one of the on-line magazine subscription sites like Magazines.com, or e-Subscription.com.

Conclusion

Other than that one decidedly minor quibble, I have no qualms recommending Popular Science to anyone who asks. The magazine is my new personal science and technology advisor designed to enrich my knowledge of science and technology spanning the globe.