Reviews For Popular Science Magazine

I used to like popular science for a relatively easy and entertaining read of science and technology. I especially liked the "What's new" section. But as the years went on, the magazine has been increasingly commercialized with its reviews. The "What's New" section should not contain things like Toyota Corollas... I don't care if they have anti-lock brakes. This has nothing to do with new science. It is this type of thing that I don't care to see. I believe the magazine's quality has been eroded by the advertising dollar. I am a subscriber to a superior content magazine, "Scientific American" but sometimes I'd like to see the older Popular Science for a lighter treatment of the subject. I guess it isn't there anymore. Anyway, I was happy to see my subscription run out.


Recommended:
No

When I was a teenager <cough>, I liked this magazine. But over the years I've become really disappointed in the thin gimicky style. Lots of hype and filler, and not much meat. These types of magazines tend to carry numb-brained scare-and-fantasy oriented titles like "Will Einstein's theories cause lethal tidal waves?!?" and "Nanotechnology's promise of immortality". <sigh>. Discover magazine and Scientific American are better, but only slightly. I'm much more impressed with Science magazine.

I haven't read Popular Science in 10-15 years and was interested in getting the family into reading it. But yikes -- each issue is basically a huge ad. Many articles are just product spotlights a.k.a. promotion. Very little actual science content in each issue. Sad. Not renewing my subscription that expires in 1 month.

I was a biology major when I purchased this magazine. I was hoping for more articles related to breakthroughs in science regarding biology. Just about every issue talks about the new utopia, how the world is going to change with futuristic designs in housing and transportation. I am over it.

I used to love reading my parents subscription to this magazine... but it seems to have been watered down significantly over the last decade. Anymore, after the "gee whiz" factor wears off, I am not left with any real feeling of substance of signficant scientific insight.

The biggest advantages of this mag are it's cheap and it's really 'popular'. Which means you don't need much science education to understand almost all their articles. It's an ok reading for children in their tender age, say 15 and below. Why PG? as other reivewers had pointed out, the loads of ads populated at the back of the mag are not scientific and often sxual oriented. If you do not yet wish to expose the next day delivered Viagra to your ten-year-old son, rip a few pages off before giving it to your kids.

This magazine has been a huge dissapointment. The articles are full of "fluff" in the sense that it gives you a basic scientific idea but does not give in-depth coverage. It seems most of these articles are 1 page or less -- just enough space to give you a gist of what it is.

Also, on many topics I have noticed that I had already read about it in popular mechanics two months before...written better and with more detail. Many stories seem to be about what the Earth will be like in 50 years, ie how green technology, robots and computers will change the way we live. Well, I am not too concerned about speculating how things MAY be 50 years from now, I want to read about current projects or ones that have a short 5-10 year goal.

Another reviewer mentioned that the editor is biased; I have to agree. I don't care what your political views are or if you're an apple or microsoft guy -- just don't push your agenda on me!

Therefore, I will continue to read popular mechanics and not renew pop sci.

About half of every issue of this magazine is devoted to glowing articles about new car models and other commercially-available gadgets.
When I subscribed, I hoped to be kept abreast of new discoveries and theories in science, as well as their practical applications. I was disappointed. Perhaps I'll try Scientific American next.

Initially, I thought this was a pretty good magazine so i renewed it but lately I noticed some real inappropriate advts in this magazines and I don't feel comfortable sharing this mag with my 14yr old. Such magazines are NOT good for grown up kids/13plus.

I bought this magazine subscription for my grandson's 12th birthday. Luckily, I had it come to my house first. I had to go through and censor the magazine. It had very explicit advertisements geared towards sex. Not something a 12 year old should be exposed to. I found this under magazines for children 12 to 16. I think you should change the age group for this type of magazine. It's a shame that you have those ads, as I will continue to censor them as they come in, but I will discontinue this magazine in a year and go with a more age appropriate magazine.