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MAGAZINES by Stephen Hart |
1. New Scientist. The most fun and most beautiful science magazine online has won a slew of Web awards. Includes selected full-text features, as well as news, jobs, editorials, reviews and Web-only material--all with some hypertext links. "The Last Word," a reader-written Q&A column, alone makes the site worth visiting.
2. Scientific American delivers a good-looking and informative Website, doing its print partner justice. The "Science and the Citizen" news section appears in full text, along with selected illustrated articles. Also see special sections such as "Working Knowledge" (how things work), "The Amateur Scientist," reviews, and commentaries. "Ask the Experts" attempts to answer your science questions.
3. Nature. Much of the world's hottest science, reported in newspapers, radio and TV, appears in Nature and its American equivalent, Science. Research article summaries, "News" and "Nature science update" are all general-reader friendly. Jobs, a meetings guide, "Web Specials" and links to Nature's specialty journals fill out the package. "Nature past" provides, for example, full text of Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA--the groundbreaking first step toward modern biotechnology. (Requires free registration.) Two journals play similar roles as medical newsmakers: JAMA The Journal of the American Medical Association and The New England Journal of Medicine.
4. The Why Files. Perhaps the only Web-only science magazine, The Why Files presents the science behind the news in a readable, fun style, suitable for kids. This bright, cluttered site has won many Web awards. Produced by the National Institute of Science Education and supported by the National Science Foundation.
5. With dozens of science journals to choose from, how can you keep up to date with science news? With Science News. This slim weekly contains short, pithy news items and "back-of-the-book" features (also readably short). In its 12 somewhat old-fashioned print pages, you'll find the real story behind the science and medicine news in the newspaper, and many stories that won't make the physically bigger magazines for months, all headlined with wit. Full-text indexes, full text for selected articles, Ivars Peterson's MathLand and more round out a useful, if not snappily designed Website. (And if you've always wanted to write about science yourself, check out the highly competitive Science News internship.)
Also... Choosing only five science journals and/or magazines online proved a difficult task, so I've posted links to more than 70 on my Website. Finally, Larry Krumenaker's encyclopedic Net.Journal Directory serves as a consummate guide to full-text Web publications on all topics.
Stephen Hart is a freelance science, medicine and technology writer in Port Angeles, Washington.