Who has ever heard of this magazine? I hadn’t. And then Miller-McCune showed up in my mailbox at home with a “Subscribe for Free!” sticker on the front. They just needed to know that I worked at a non-profit company (which I do).
It’s an unwieldy name, and I couldn’t really tell who published it or if they had a bias or an agenda or anything. I was very suspicious of it.
And then I started reading it. And it was very good. I was all set to send in my subscription card. And then I lost it. Oh well. Like I needed another magazine.
And then, the next month, another copy and another free subscription offer! Whoo hoo. So, I sent it in. We’ll see if when the subscription starts I get the magazines as consistently!
I enjoyed this second issue even more than the first. The general tenor of the magazine is research, or as they say “turning research into solutions.” Despite the “intellectual” tone of the subtitle, the writing is very readable. (And it’s glossy with lots of pictures). However, their ads are for things like: Johns Hopkins Press and Earthjustice. So, they’re not exactly lightweight either.
Indeed, The contributors’ biographies shows he high quality of the writers that they employ.
The “”Not the Editor’s Letter section is designed to be different than most Editor’s Letter (in that he doesn’t extol the virtues of the articles within the magazine). I guess, in that respect it is like the Harper‘s Editor’s letter.
The short pieces at the beginning of the magazine have fun “headings.” In this case, an article about fake antique artifacts appearing on eBay shows up under “Western Civ.”
This issue also contains an article about Solar Energy use in Germany (and how it can apply to the U.S.) as well as a chart showing which corporations donate money to which political party (Proctor & Gamble is very Republican, while Apple is very Democrat…no duh; however, Merck, Pfizer & Citigroup are also very Republican while Washington Mutual and Goldman Sachs are very Democrat. Huh. Comcast and Wachovia are pretty evenly split).
The magazine’s other section include plays on standard issues with “News and Options” or the cleverly titled “Rational Arguments” section. This issue concerns Crime Labs and how they are not all slick like on CSI. In fact they are often compromised by being located within police stations. Another really good piece in this section is about political ads for or against Supreme Court justices. This is especially timely with the questioning of Sotomayor. But the article shows that the negative ads against Alito (and the ads for Alito which were also negative in tone against his attackers) tended to have an overall negative impact of the public’s perception of the Supreme Court in general. Surely not what anyone intended.
There’s also a piece about Francisco DeVries who is trying to make solar power in houses a reality throughout California.
The large articles cover a variety of topics. In this case one is about James 
Watt and his attempts to spread oil drilling to previously unused sections of the country. There’s another fascinating article about Noise and Quiet. One man’s search for silence leads him around the country. But he finds that absolute quiet (as found in an anechoic chamber) would totally blow your mind. It was this article that sold me on the magazine.
The end of the magazine contains a couple of reviews. This one reviewed Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs. While it doesn’t make me want to read the book (it was summarized so well, I feel that I don’t have to) I’m thrilled that I read the review, as it points to potentially good news about Iran/U.S. relations
We wrap up with Research in Summary, which shows 4 or 5 short pieces (a couple of paragraphs) of recent findings (this issues is all about swimming pools). Some are serious (how abandoned houses’ swimming pools have caused a dramatic rise in mosquitoes (and West Nile Virus)), and some are silly (it took 7 scholars to determine that “participation in formal swimming lessons reduced the risk of drowning in 1-4 year-olds”).
And every magazine loves its back page. This one is called The Cocktail Napkin and it shows a number of ideas actually printed on a napkin (well, okay, graphically placed over a napkin, but you get the picture). These are amusing scientific ideas that can be summed up in a paragraph or two, all with a slightly humorous twist.
All in all, this is a solid and well-written magazine and I’m really happy that they found me.
In response to my question of who has heard of this magazine, well evidently Library Journal says they are one of the 10 best new magazines of 2008 and Utne Reader raves about their Science/Tech coverage. So, clearly some people have heard of it. And now you have too.
Leave a Reply