Scientific American

1845 edition.

Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It was founded by Rufus Porter. Scientific American has been published (first weekly, then monthly) since August 28, 1845, and is the oldest continuously published journal in the United States. From 1902 to 1911 Scientific American oversaw the publication of an encyclopedia entitled The Encyclopedia Americana, which for part of that period was called The Americana. Scientific American is owned by Springer Nature, which is a subsidiary of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

In Spain, a translated version is published called Investigación y Ciencia.

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 reporting what was going on in the United States Patent Office. It also reported on a wide range of inventions, such as perpetual motion machines, an 1860 device for buoying Abraham Lincoln's ships, and the universal joint that can now be found in almost every automobile. Current issues include a 'this date in history' section, with excerpts from articles originally published 50, 100, and 150 years earlier. Topics include humorous incidents, flawed theories, and notable advances in the history of science and technology. It began as a weekly publication in August 1845 before becoming a monthly in November 1921.

Porter sold the publication to Alfred Ely Beach and Orson Desaix Munn just ten months after founding it. Until 1948, it remained the property of Munn & Company. Under the direction of Munn's grandson, Orson Desaix Munn III, it had become something of a "workbench" publication, akin to the incarnation of the century XX from Popular Science.

In the years after World War II, the magazine went into decline. In 1948, three partners who planned to start a new popular science journal, to be called The Sciences, instead bought the assets of the former Scientific American and put their name on it. the layouts they had created for their new magazine. Thus, the partners: editor Gerard Piel, editor Dennis Flanagan, and CEO Donald H. Miller, Jr. essentially created a new magazine. Miller retired in 1979, Flanagan and Piel in 1984, when Gerard Piel's son, Jonathan, was named president and publisher; circulation had increased fifteenfold since 1948. In 1986 it was sold to the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany, which owned it until the Springer-Nature merger. In fall 2008, Scientific American came under the control of Holtzbrinck's Nature Publishing Group division.

Donald Miller died in December 1998, Gerard Piel in September 2004, and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005. Mariette DiChristina became editor-in-chief after John Rennie stepped down in June 2009, leaving the the role herself in September 2019. On April 13, 2020, Laura Helmuth assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief.

International Editions

Scientific American published its first foreign edition in 1890, the Spanish language La América Científica. Publication was discontinued in 1905, and it would be another 63 years before another foreign-language edition appeared: In 1968, an Italian edition, Le Scienze, was launched, and three years later a Japanese edition., Nikkei Science - 日経サイエンス}. A new Spanish edition, Investigación y Ciencia, was launched 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 ({В мире науки") was released in the Soviet Union in 1983, and continues in the current 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 journal moved to Beijing in 2001. Later, in 2005, a more recent edition, Global Science (环球科学), was published instead of Kexue , which closed due to financial problems. A traditional Chinese edition, known as Scientist (magazine) - 科学美国人, was introduced in Taiwan in 2002. The Hungarian edition Tudomány existed from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, an Arabic edition was published, Oloom Magazine - مجلة العلوم. In 2002, a Portuguese edition was launched in Brazil.

Currently, Scientific American publishes 18 foreign language editions worldwide: Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, 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 oversaw the publication of the Encyclopedia Americana, which for part of that period was known as The Americana.

First Edition

PDF of the first issue: Scientific American Vol. 1, No. 01 published on August 28, 1845

Cover of September 1848

It was originally called "The Advocate of Industry and Enterprise" and "Journal of Mechanical and other Improvements". The cover of the first issue featured the engraving "Improved Rail-Road Cars". The header had the following comment:

Scientific American It is published every Thursday morning on the 11th issue of Spruce Street, New York, on the 16th issue of State Street, Boston, and on the 21st issue of Arcade, Philadelphia (the main office is in New York) by Rufus Porter. Each number will be provided with two to five original engravings, many of them elegant, and illustrative of new inventions, scientific principles and curious works; and it will contain, in addition to the most interesting news of current events, general notices of the progress of mechanical improvements and other scientific improvements; American and foreign improvements and inventions; American and foreign patent catalogues; scientific essays, illustratives of the principles of the sciences of mechanics, chemistry and useful arts This paper is particularly worthy of the sponsorship of mechanics and manufacturers, as it is the only newspaper in America dedicated to the interests of these classes; but it is particularly useful for farmers, since it will not only inform them of improvements in agricultural implements, but will instruct them in several mechanical offices, and protect them against impositions. As a family newspaper, it will transmit to children and young people more useful intelligence than five times its cost of school instruction. Another important argument for this newspaper is that it will be worth two dollars at the end of the year when the volume is complete (the old volumes of the New York Mechanic, are now worth twice the original cost, in cash). Conditions: El Scientific American subscribers will be provided at $2 per year, one dollar in advance and the rest in six months. Five copies will be sent to one address six months, for four dollars in advance. Anyone who gets two or more subscribers will have the right to a 25 cent commission each.

The comment under the illustration gives an idea of his style at the time:

There is perhaps no mechanical issue in which improvements have progressed so quickly, in the last ten years, as in the railway passenger cars. If we compare the clumsy and coarse cars of the year 35 with the splendid long carriages that circulate now through several of the roads of the east, it will be difficult to convey to a third a correct idea of the magnitude of the improvement. Some of the most elegant wagons of this class, with capacity for sixty-eight passengers, and which operate with a stability hardly equaled by a steamboat in calm waters, are manufactured by Davenport & Bridges, at its Cambridgeport, Massachusetts establishment. The manufacturers have recently introduced a variety of excellent improvements in the construction of carriages, springs and connections, which are calculated to avoid atmospheric resistance, ensure safety and comfort, and contribute to the ease and comfort of passengers, while flying at a speed of 30 or 40 miles per hour.

The first issue also comments on the device proposed by Signor Muzio Muzzi for air navigation.

Scientific American 50

The magazine's Scientific American 50 Awards were instituted in 2002 to recognize contributions to science and technology during the previous year. This award covers many categories, including agriculture, communications, defense, environment and medical diagnostics. The full list of each year's winners appears in the December issue of the magazine, as well as on the magazine's website.

Website

In March 1996, Scientific American launched its own website which includes articles on current and past issues, exclusive online features, news news, curiosities, special reports, trivia, "Scidoku" and much more.

Television

Scientific American. He has also produced a TV show on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) called Scientific American Frontiers in the original.

Scientific and political debate

In April 1950, the Atomic Energy Commission ordered Scientific American to stop publishing 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 exaggerated. The incident was important to the history of the "new" Scientific American, as the AEC's decision to burn 3,000 copies of a first print run of the magazine containing the offending material appeared to be a "book burning in a free society" when editor Gerard Piel leaked the incident to the press..

In its January 2002 issue, Scientific American published a series of criticisms of Bjørn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist. Cato Institute Fellow Patrick J. Michaels said the attacks were because the book "threatens the billions of taxpayer dollars that go into the global change box every year." Journalist Ronald Bailey called the criticism "disturbing" and "dishonest," and wrote: "The subtitle of the reviews section, 'Science Defends Itself Against The Skeptical Environmentalist, puts on the show: The religious and political opinions have to be defended against criticism, but science is supposed to be a process of determining facts".

The May 2007 issue included a column by Michael Shermer calling for US withdrawal from the Iraq War. In response, Wall Street Journal online columnist James Taranto jokingly called Scientific American 'a liberal political magazine'.

The publisher came under fire in 2009 when it notified university libraries that annual subscription prices for the journal would increase by nearly 500% for print and 50% for online access, to $1,500 a year..

An editorial in the September 2016 issue of Scientific American attacked US presidential candidate Donald Trump for his 'anti-scientific' attitudes and rhetoric. This was the first time the publication had dabbled in commentary on US presidential politics.

In the October 2020 issue, the magazine endorsed Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential election, citing Donald Trump's rejection of scientific evidence, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. 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 forced to do so. We do not do it lightly".