Popular Science Magazine

[plague]

I've been reading Popular Science since I was a kid (1991) and only a year ago let me subscription run out because I was tight on money, and I was several issues behind anyway.

I got the latest issue for my birthday and a subscription!

How do people feel about this magazine? I love it because of all the new tools and gadgets they talk about, but also because of the few science and future looking articles they have.

I have a friend though, that believes that all of the articles, even the science ones are media hype and corporate sponsored.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I used to read it and Popular Mechanics back in the 80's. Good mags back then, I haven't read one since though.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

I think I let my Pop Sci and Pop Mech subscriptions die when the late great Omni magazine began to lose its luster.

 

[JustAFriend]

Been reading it since the '60s, but will usually just flip through it at the newsstand now.

..they've got a LOT less content and more fluff now....

 

[TremblingBluStar]

Been reading it since the '60s, but will usually just flip through it at the newsstand now.

..they've got a LOT less content and more fluff now....

I have to agree. As much as I love the magazine format, it is going the way of the horse drawn carriage. In 50 years (maybe quicker) the idea that we once wasted millions of pages of paper a month to send people information that is outdated by the time it is received will seem backward.

 

[plague]

I think I let my Pop Sci and Pop Mech subscriptions die when the late great Omni magazine began to lose its luster.

I also read Omni for awhile. I remember enjoying it and being disappointed when it died.

 

[Amaris]

Been reading it since the '60s, but will usually just flip through it at the newsstand now.

..they've got a LOT less content and more fluff now....

I have to agree. As much as I love the magazine format, it is going the way of the horse drawn carriage. In 50 years (maybe quicker) the idea that we once wasted millions of pages of paper a month to send people information that is outdated by the time it is received will seem backward.

Thirded. I used to love PopMech, but it's just fluff stuff now. Once in a while there's a good article, but for the most part it's more "ooh sleek and pretty" instead of diving into the nuts and bolts of something cutting edge.

J.

 

[plague]

Okay. I feel bad about the dead trees when I think about it.

It's a guilty pleasure, even though I recycle way more paper than the average american.

I wonder why magazines haven't gone completely digital. I'd be just as happy with a PDF. I don't feel the need to smell the paper.

 

[Jadzia]

For me, I enjoy having paper magazines. It isn't just words and pictures, but the feel of flicking through them, and having something material there in my hands.

There's something much more natural and relaxing about reading text on a page too.

 

[John Picard]

I've been reading Popular Science since I was a kid (1991) and only a year ago let me subscription run out because I was tight on money, and I was several issues behind anyway.

I got the latest issue for my birthday and a subscription!

How do people feel about this magazine? I love it because of all the new tools and gadgets they talk about, but also because of the few science and future looking articles they have.

I have a friend though, that believes that all of the articles, even the science ones are media hype and corporate sponsored.

I was an avid reader of Popular Science during my teen years (80's); however, after a while I realized that it's more of a magazine of "wishful thinking". Many of the articles and concepts were interesting and insightful, but overall I believe 90% of what was reported as *The Future* was more or less speculation.

 

[Mr. B]

I have a subscription to it at present... been reading it for years. It's not as substantive as it once was but it's good for a few minutes of interesting reading.

 

[Brolan]

I used to like Popular Science back in the '70s and just for old times’ sake I presubscribed last year. I was kind of annoyed to find articles about personal flying cars, and using airships for moving people and freight, just like in the '70s. It didn't happen back then and its not likely to happen now.

 

[Dayton3]

I like magazines better than computers any day.

To me, the heyday of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics was in the 1980s when they achieved the best balance of hard information and artfull glossiness.

Half the reason I get either magazine now is for the speculative artwork on the cover and inside.

I loved the version of Science Digest that ran in the 1980s.

Also International Combat Arms and Final Frontier (the space program magazine).

 

[plague]

I used to like Popular Science back in the '70s and just for old times’ sake I presubscribed last year. I was kind of annoyed to find articles about personal flying cars, and using airships for moving people and freight, just like in the '70s. It didn't happen back then and its not likely to happen now.

Good point. I don't see how the flying car prototypes of today are any closer to being mass produced and accepted as the chemical rocket backpacks of the seventies.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

Okay. I feel bad about the dead trees when I think about it.

It's a guilty pleasure, even though I recycle way more paper than the average american.

I wonder why magazines haven't gone completely digital. I'd be just as happy with a PDF. I don't feel the need to smell the paper.

It is hard for me to say, but I would bet the energy used by your computer and other electronic devices for your sources of news, information and entertainment are probably no less harmful to the environment.

 

[USS Triumphant]

It is hard for me to say, but I would bet the energy used by your computer and other electronic devices for your sources of news, information and entertainment are probably no less harmful to the environment.

At least in my case, my computer is going to be on anyway, and that's probably true for a lot of people who would want to receive something like Pop Sci or Pop Mech as a PDF.

But I just got a new subscription to Pop Sci yesterday. Girl Scouts fundraiser (not the cookie sales), gotta buy something.

 

[plague]

... I just got a new subscription to Pop Sci yesterday...

Congrats!

I love when I check the mail, and it's there. I actually start reading it as I walk back into the house and don't stop reading until things go blurry.

 

[oponda2009]

Scitech magazines seems to be popular right now.
[FONT=Trebuchet MS][FONT=Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, san-serif]From its roots over a century ago as the Sibley Journal and the Cornell Civil Engineer, to the 1990s, as a top undergraduate engineering publication in the United States, Cornell Science & Technology has been committed to welcoming new ideas - and with it, new talent. In recent years, SciTech's expansion into the realm of pure and applied sciences has broadened its appeal to undergrads, while keeping focus on the most pressing issues facing academia and society today. [/FONT][/FONT]