Popular Science Magazine

My friend James just took a number of subscriptions to magazines, and Popular Science is one of them. I have picked up the magazine a few times over the past 15 or so years, when a specific headline tweaked my interest. This month's edition includes some important news articles as well as the magazine's regular features. I will start this review with a summary of the NewsFiles, which include the most important articles, in my opinion.

The first article, "Cleaning Up Old King Cole" outlines some of the environmental concerns caused by the use of coal to generate electricity: smog, acid rain and climate change. At issue: is it possible to create zeor emission or "clean coal" according to the article, some say yes, and you guessed it, some say no, that the concept is analogous to "safe cigarets."

There are short (1/2 page or less) articles about robotics, the link between stress and a fatty diet, the link between religion and people's views on biotechnology, the latest on artificial eyes, cremation, "spiders in love," and a mechanical leech (to aid in the healing of wounds, sounds a bit old-fashioned, no?) There is a fascinating summary of a paper that theorizes that our early hominid ancestors were infected by a retrovirus (HIV is a virus of this type) and we all carry this in our DNA. The article puts hard science into simple terms and will provide the fuel for some interesting conversation when I'm out with my friends tonight.

What's New:

This month features a swinging cell phone with a rotating cover (looks really cool in the photo, but at $450US I'll never know for sure!), a prototype driver's license test on-line (egads!), Computerized Terminal Imaging to detect breast cancer (pending FDA approval), cars, PDAs, high-tech biking gear, new stuff for divers, new fast laptops, 30 day contact lens, battery converters, and "tech for tots," (wouldn't want your children to fall behind!)

There are also tons of articles and photos detailing new car and camera designs, this is of no interest to me but would be of immense interest to people (I am resisting the temptation to stereotype and say men) who are into new and expensive toys, and tons of ads geared to that same demographic.

Test pages are just what they sound like.

Finally, there is a full-length article, "My Mother, the Scientist" written in honour of mother's day, the article talks about what it was like to grow up with Joan Feynman (you guessed it, she's a scientist) as a mother. Joan Feynman a geophysical researcher had to overcome a great deal of prejudice and "lies, insults, mockeries and disapproval" as it was not common for a woman to be a successful scientist in the middle decades of the last century.

Finally, the FYI section includes expert answers and scientific explanations for reader questions like, "Why is the knuckle ball so hard to hit?"

Overall this is an interesting, informative magazine and probably a must-read for people interested in cutting edge technology and simple explanations of new scientific theories.