Science News: A Weekly Overview of Science

To call Science News a magazine isn't really fair. Consisting of 16 pages per issue it's more like a weekly newsletter. Of those 16 pages, one is the front cover, one the back cover (always a full page ad), one lists the content and editorial staff, and another two or three are advertising. That leaves 10-12 pages of actual content per issue.

This isn't much, and even with the weekly schedule much is left out and most of what does make the cut isn't presented in much depth. The magazine starts with several pages of news bites followed by two or three topical articles driven by but not directly related to the news items.

Although definitely aimed at people interested in science, the articles rarely require much if any actual prior knowledge or background in the sciences. Although the stray technical term does sneak in, most words that could be unfamiliar to readers are defined in place. Articles also generally maintain a light friendly tone rather than using dry academic prose. The one oddity is semi-continuous references to old Science News articles made in place throughout most articles. This level of referencing is not only unnecessary, it also interferes with the flow of the text.

The news items, however, can presume knowledge of both specialized vocabulary and of pertinent related subject matter. Medical research reports frequently refer to particular enzymes by name and are filled with acronyms you're supposed to know. Astronomy articles talk about fundamental particles and principles of general relativity without explanation. You either know or you're left behind scratching your head.

That said, the average news bite runs one third to one half of a page. Even with the presumed prior knowledge that's just not enough space to provide any real depth.

Although the articles span all types of science, the news coverage concentrates fairly heavily on medical research. Of the eight or nine news items in each issue, at least five or six cover new developments in medical research. While I'm glad to see scientists working to solve the world's health problems, it would be nice to see more balanced coverage.

The back of each issue has a section called Of Note then a single page devoted to books and letters. Of Note consists of six or seven very short reports on ongoing research. Interestingly, this section is fairly balanced among the different sciences.

The Books section highlights new and notable science books, providing a one paragraph blurb about each. These blurbs generally highlight a small subset of the content within the book. I don't find them terribly useful.

The Letters section is a single column on the last page containing a few letters from readers. These too are very short and consist mainly of corrections to mistakes the reader noticed. I generally skip this section.

Science News subscriptions run about $50 per year. That doesn't sound too bad for a weekly magazine (there are actually 51 issues each year) until you realize you're getting about 10 pages of actual content for each buck. Even if you're interested in every field of science and every topic they cover that's not a lot of material.

I don't subscribe to Science News but my library carries it. I tend to walk by and see if anything mentioned on the cover catches my attention. I probably leaf through ten issues a year, reading whatever catches my fancy. I can't imagine many people wanting to do more - how many people do you know who are interested in every field of science, who have the background to understand the news bites, and who will be satisfied with fairly superficial articles?