Science for the Curious
©2016 C. Henry Martens
Science for the Curious
I don’t often consider a magazine published by anyone worthy of special notice. Sure, I enjoy several when I go to an office with a waiting room, but I rarely subscribe. They are both expensive, considering what information you get, and time consuming as you try to find the nuggets of value inside their pages. The magazine, Discover, is an exception to both of those gripes I have with mass marketed periodicals.
I am a guy who specializes in nothing, the proverbial jack-of-all-trades, but a science geek nonetheless. I am curious about everything. So when I pick up something to read, I enjoy finding something that stimulates my brain.
Many magazines fail miserably in that regard. First, how many ways can you combine flour, sugar, and some kind of liquid to make something that isn’t very good for your body? Second, a lot of the information people get paid to write, professionally, is another rehash of the last rehash rerehashed. I swear that many of the magazines go by the same operating ethic that most high school students work under… in other words, wait until the last possible moment, and then stay up all night filling the paper with as many words as are required.
This is not to say that all magazines are written that way. There are several that work diligently at their craft, and I congratulate their editors and staff for producing excellence. National Geographic, Smithsonian, Motor Trend, and a very few others come to mind.
The cream of this crop, though, is Discover… and here is why.
My greatest pleasure in reading is to be undistracted while reading quality. So although Discover pays for its own publication through advertising, like all other magazines, it does not chop up the articles in its pages so that you have to search for the later paragraphs hidden somewhere in the back. Each article is complete from front to back. Such a simple idea, and so welcome.
The content of the publication is exceptional as well. Variety is said to be the spice of life, and Discover gives their full share of spice to their effort. Astronomy shares space with Anthropology, Entomology follows Psychology, and genetically modified organisms compete for space on the page with cures and strategies in dealing with Ebola. The subject matter is a panoply of the interesting, bizarre, and worthwhile. If you can’t find several articles in each issue that tweak your interest, you should check your pulse.
In order to cram as much as possible into each issue, the magazine is laid out with several concise essays that are condensed information in a small space.
If I were to have one gripe with Discover, it is that they follow one of the same formulas as all of the other magazines published by major publishers… they eschew any mention or critique of independent authors in their book reviews. I would dearly love to have them review my own work, but alas, I am not part of that system.
You don’t find Discover in many offices. You should, IMO, but traditionalists go with what they grew up with. Discover is a better magazine than that. I suggest you investigate and consider a subscription. The editors and staff deserve your look at them. You will not be disappointed.
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Science for the Curious
I don’t often consider a magazine published by anyone worthy of special notice. Sure, I enjoy several when I go to an office with a waiting room, but I rarely subscribe. They are both expensive, considering what information you get, and time consuming as you try to find the nuggets of value inside their pages. The magazine, Discover, is an exception to both of those gripes I have with mass marketed periodicals.
I am a guy who specializes in nothing, the proverbial jack-of-all-trades, but a science geek nonetheless. I am curious about everything. So when I pick up something to read, I enjoy finding something that stimulates my brain.
Many magazines fail miserably in that regard. First, how many ways can you combine flour, sugar, and some kind of liquid to make something that isn’t very good for your body? Second, a lot of the information people get paid to write, professionally, is another rehash of the last rehash rerehashed. I swear that many of the magazines go by the same operating ethic that most high school students work under… in other words, wait until the last possible moment, and then stay up all night filling the paper with as many words as are required.
This is not to say that all magazines are written that way. There are several that work diligently at their craft, and I congratulate their editors and staff for producing excellence. National Geographic, Smithsonian, Motor Trend, and a very few others come to mind.
The cream of this crop, though, is Discover… and here is why.
My greatest pleasure in reading is to be undistracted while reading quality. So although Discover pays for its own publication through advertising, like all other magazines, it does not chop up the articles in its pages so that you have to search for the later paragraphs hidden somewhere in the back. Each article is complete from front to back. Such a simple idea, and so welcome.
The content of the publication is exceptional as well. Variety is said to be the spice of life, and Discover gives their full share of spice to their effort. Astronomy shares space with Anthropology, Entomology follows Psychology, and genetically modified organisms compete for space on the page with cures and strategies in dealing with Ebola. The subject matter is a panoply of the interesting, bizarre, and worthwhile. If you can’t find several articles in each issue that tweak your interest, you should check your pulse.
In order to cram as much as possible into each issue, the magazine is laid out with several concise essays that are condensed information in a small space.
If I were to have one gripe with Discover, it is that they follow one of the same formulas as all of the other magazines published by major publishers… they eschew any mention or critique of independent authors in their book reviews. I would dearly love to have them review my own work, but alas, I am not part of that system.
You don’t find Discover in many offices. You should, IMO, but traditionalists go with what they grew up with. Discover is a better magazine than that. I suggest you investigate and consider a subscription. The editors and staff deserve your look at them. You will not be disappointed.
Sign up to receive the Apocalypse Observer Newsletter in your inbox
www.readmota.com
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