
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American
popular science
Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
magazine. Many scientists, including
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
and
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (;["Tesla"](_blank)
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...
, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
-winners being featured since its inception.
In print since 1845, it is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ''Scientific American'' is owned by
Springer Nature
Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...
, which is a subsidiary of
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a Privately held company, privately held German company headquartered in Stuttgart, that Holding company, owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Big Five English-lan ...
.
History
''Scientific American'' was founded by inventor and publisher
Rufus Porter Rufus Porter may refer to:
*Rufus Porter (painter) (1792–1884), American painter, inventor, and founder of ''Scientific American'' magazine
*Rufus Porter (American football), American football linebacker in the National Football League
{{Hndis, ...
in 1845
as a four-page weekly newspaper. The first issue of the large-format New York City newspaper was released on August 28, 1845.
Throughout its early years, much emphasis was placed on reports of what was going on at the
U.S. Patent Office. It also reported on a broad range of inventions including
perpetual motion
Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work indefinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible ...
machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
, and the
universal joint
A universal joint (also called a universal coupling or U-joint) is a joint or coupling connecting rigid shafts whose axes are inclined to each other. It is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion. It consists of a pair of hinges ...
which now can be found in nearly every automobile manufactured. Current issues include a "this date in history" section, featuring excerpts from articles originally published 50, 100, and 150 years earlier. Topics include humorous incidents, wrong-headed theories, and noteworthy advances in the history of science and technology. It started as a weekly publication in August 1845 before turning into a monthly in November 1921.
Porter sold the publication to
Alfred Ely Beach
Alfred Ely Beach (September 1, 1826 – January 1, 1896) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, publisher, and patent lawyer, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is known for his design of the earliest predecessor to the New York City Subwa ...
, son of media magnate
Moses Yale Beach
Moses Yale Beach (January 15, 1800 – July 19, 1868) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, philanthropist and publisher, who founded the Associated Press, and is credited with originating print syndication. His fortune, as of 1846, amounted t ...
, and
Orson Desaix Munn
Orson Desaix Munn (June 11, 1824 – February 28, 1907) was the publisher of ''Scientific American''.
Biography
Orson Desaix Munn was born on June 11, 1824, in Monson, Massachusetts. He received his education at the academy in his native town, ...
, a mere ten months after founding it. Editors and co-owners from the
Yale family
Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges char ...
included
Frederick C. Beach and his son,
Stanley Yale Beach
Stanley Yale Beach (1877 – 1955) was a wealthy aviation pioneer, who was an early financier of Gustave Whitehead, who claimed to have made powered controlled flight before the Wright brothers. He was among the first technically trained men to b ...
, and from the Munn family,
Charles Allen Munn
Charles Allen Munn (1859–1924) was an American editor and publisher who oversaw ''Scientific American'' after the editorship of his father, Orson Desaix Munn. His nephew Orson Desaix Munn II succeeded him as editor of the magazine. He was also ...
and his nephew,
Orson Desaix Munn II
Orson Desaix Munn II (1883–1958) was an editor and publisher of ''Scientific American'' magazine.
He was the son of Henry Norcross Munn (1851-1905) and his wife Annie E. Elder (1855-1917), the nephew of Charles Allen Munn, and the grandson ...
. Until 1948, it remained owned by the families under
Munn & Company.
Under Orson Munn's grandson, Orson Desaix Munn III, it had evolved into something of a "workbench" publication, similar to the 20th-century incarnation of ''
Popular Science
Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
''.
In the years after World War II, the magazine fell into decline. In 1948, three partners who were planning on starting a new popular science magazine, to be called ''The Sciences'', purchased the assets of the old ''Scientific American'' instead and put its name on the designs they had created for their new magazine. Thus the partnerspublisher
Gerard Piel
Gerard Piel (1 March 1915 in Woodmere, N.Y. – 5 September 2004) was the publisher of the new ''Scientific American'' magazine starting in 1948. He wrote for magazines, including ''The Nation'', and published books on science for the genera ...
, editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager Donald H. Miller Jr. essentially created a new magazine. Miller retired in 1979, Flanagan and Piel in 1984, when Gerard Piel's son Jonathan became president and editor; circulation had grown fifteen-fold since 1948. In 1986, it was sold to the
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a Privately held company, privately held German company headquartered in Stuttgart, that Holding company, owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Big Five English-lan ...
of Germany, which has owned it until the
Springer-Nature merger. In the fall of 2008, ''Scientific American'' was put under the control of Holtzbrinck's
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio (formerly known as Nature Publishing Group and Nature Research) is a division of the international scientific publishing company Springer Nature that publishes academic journals, magazines, online databases, and services in scien ...
division.
Donald Miller died in December 1998, Gerard Piel in September 2004 and Dennis Flanagan in January 2005.
Mariette DiChristina became editor-in-chief after
John Rennie stepped down in June 2009,
and stepped down herself in September 2019. In April 2020,
Laura Helmuth assumed the role of
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
.
The magazine is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.
In 2009, the publisher notified collegiate libraries that yearly subscription prices for the magazine would increase by nearly 500% for print and 50% for online access to $1,500 yearly.
Offices of the ''Scientific American'' have included 37
Park Row in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and the
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world f ...
in 1915 when it was just finished two years earlier in 1913.
The Woolworth Building was at the time one of the first skyscrapers in the city and the tallest one in the world.
International editions
''Scientific American'' published its first foreign-language edition in 1890 in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
, titled ''La América Científica é Industrial'', but ended sometime in the early 1900s. In 1968, the Italian-language edition'',
Le Scienze'', was launched followed by the Japanese edition, ''日経サイエンス'' (transliteration: ''Nikkei Science'') in 1971.
Subsequent international editions included the Spanish-language revival for
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, ''Inveestigación y Ciencia'' ("Investigation and Science") in 1976, the
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
''Pour la Science'' ("For Science") in 1977, the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
''Spektrum der Wissenschaft'' ("Spectrum of Science") in 1978, as well as the
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
''V Mire Nauki'' (
Russian: В мире науки; "In the world of science").
The
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
edition, published by Prószyński Media, began in 1991 under the name ''Świat Nauki'' ("World of Science").
In 2002, the
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
ese edition, ''Scientist'' (
traditional Chinese
A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...
: 科學人), was established in
Taipei
, nickname = The City of Azaleas
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country ...
.That same year, the German-language edition, ''Spektrum der Wissenschaft'', introduced ''Gehirn & Geist'' ("Brain & Mind"), focusing on psychology and neuroscience.
In Italy, ''Mente & Cervello'' ("Mind & Brain") launched in 2003, complementing the older ''Le Scienze''. The
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
edition debuted in 2003, published by Cascade in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...
.
Editors
*
Rufus Porter Rufus Porter may refer to:
*Rufus Porter (painter) (1792–1884), American painter, inventor, and founder of ''Scientific American'' magazine
*Rufus Porter (American football), American football linebacker in the National Football League
{{Hndis, ...
(1792–1884), 1845–1847
*
Orson Desaix Munn
Orson Desaix Munn (June 11, 1824 – February 28, 1907) was the publisher of ''Scientific American''.
Biography
Orson Desaix Munn was born on June 11, 1824, in Monson, Massachusetts. He received his education at the academy in his native town, ...
(1824–1907), 1847–1907
*
Charles Allen Munn
Charles Allen Munn (1859–1924) was an American editor and publisher who oversaw ''Scientific American'' after the editorship of his father, Orson Desaix Munn. His nephew Orson Desaix Munn II succeeded him as editor of the magazine. He was also ...
(1859–1924), from 1907–1924
*
Orson Desaix Munn II
Orson Desaix Munn II (1883–1958) was an editor and publisher of ''Scientific American'' magazine.
He was the son of Henry Norcross Munn (1851-1905) and his wife Annie E. Elder (1855-1917), the nephew of Charles Allen Munn, and the grandson ...
(1883–1958), from 1924–1947
*
Dennis Flanagan
Dennis Flanagan (July 22, 1919 in New York City – January 14, 2005 in New York City) was the founding editor of the modern Scientific American magazine. In 1947, Flanagan, Donald H. Miller, Jr., under the leadership of Gerard Piel
Gerard ...
(1919–2005), from 1947–1984
*
Jonathan Piel
Jonathan Piel (born 23 November 1938) is an American science journalist and editor.
Work
At the Scientific American
He became the editor of ''Scientific American'' in June 1984 and left the magazine in August 1994. Following the tradition estab ...
, 1984–1994
*
John Rennie, 1994–2009
*
Mariette DiChristina, 2009–2019
*
Laura Helmuth, 2020–2024
*
David M. Ewalt, 2025–
Editorial controversy
In 2013,
Danielle N. Lee, a female scientist who blogged at ''Scientific American'', was called a "whore" in an email by an editor at the science website ''Biology Online'' after refusing to write professional content without compensation. Lee wrote a response to the email and posted it on the ''Scientific American'' blog. Then editor-in-chief Mariette DiChristina removed Lee's post, citing legal reasons for removing the blog. The editor at ''Biology Online'' was fired after the incident.
The controversy widened in the ensuing days. The magazine's blog editor, Bora Zivkovic, was the subject of allegations of sexual harassment by another blogger, Monica Byrne.
Although the alleged incident had occurred about a year earlier, editor Mariette DiChristina informed readers that the incident had been investigated and resolved to Byrne's satisfaction. However, the incident involving Lee had prompted Byrne to reveal the identity of Zivkovic, following the latter's support of Lee. Zivkovic admitted the incident with Byrne had taken place.
He apologized to Byrne, and referred to the incident as "singular", stating that his behavior was not "engaged in before or since."
Zivkovic resigned from the board of
Science Online Science Online was an annual conference held in Durham, North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, that focused on the role of the internet in science and science communication. It was attended primarily by ...
, the popular science blogging conference that he co-founded with Anton Zuiker. Following Zivkovic's admission, several female bloggers, including other bloggers for the magazine, wrote their own accounts, alleging additional incidents of sexual harassment, although none of these accounts were independently investigated. A day after these new revelations, Zivkovic resigned from his position at ''Scientific American''.
Special issues

Scientific American has published numerous special editions over the years, focusing on various scientific topics. These editions are typically released quarterly and cover themes such as
space settlement
A space settlement (also called a space habitat, spacestead, space city or space colony) is a settlement in outer space, sustaining more extensively habitation facilities in space than a general space station or spacecraft. Possibly including ...
by humans,
evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
,
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
, and
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. For example, the March 2024, (volume 33, issue 1s), included articles with themes about space exploration as well as human
sexual division of labor and
differentiation among early-human
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
s.” Similarly, the June 2024 edition, (volume 33, issue 2s), featured pieces on analyzing the "
cosmic nothing" and issues in physics raised often by the
cosmological constant
In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant,
is a coefficient that Albert Einstein initially added to his field equations of general rel ...
.
These special editions are available to subscribers and can be accessed through Scientific American’s archives. The magazine’s archive provides a comprehensive list of past issues, including special editions, dating back to its inception in 1845.
Scientific American 50 award
The Scientific American 50 award was started in 2002 to recognize contributions to science and technology during the magazine's previous year. The magazine's 50 awards cover many categories including agriculture, communications, defense, environment, and medical diagnostics. The complete list of each year's winners appear in the December issue of the magazine, as well as on the magazine's web site.
Website
In March 1996, Scientific American launched its own website that included articles from current and past issues, online-only features, daily news, special reports, and trivia, among other things. The website introduced a
paywall
A paywall is a method of restricting access to content (media), content, with a purchase or a subscription business model, paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their website ...
in April 2019, with readers able to view a few articles for free each month.
Columns

Notable features have included:
*
Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...
's
Mathematical Games column
Over a period of 24 years (January 1957 – December 1980), Martin Gardner wrote 288 consecutive monthly "Mathematical Games" columns for ''Scientific American'' magazine. During the next years, until June 1986, Gardner wrote 9 more columns, br ...
*
Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945) is an American cognitive and computer scientist whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, Strange loop, strange ...
's
Metamagical Themas
''Metamagical Themas'' is an eclectic collection of articles that Douglas Hofstadter wrote for the popular science magazine ''Scientific American'' during the early 1980s. The anthology was published in 1985 by Basic Books.
The volume is subst ...
*
The Amateur Scientist
"The Amateur Scientist" was a column in the ''Scientific American'', and was the definitive "how-to" resource for citizen-scientists for over 72 years (1928–2001), making it the longest running column in ''Scientific American''s history. The col ...
column
*
A. K. Dewdney
Alexander Keewatin Dewdney (August 5, 1941 – March 9, 2024) was a Canadian mathematician, computer scientist, author, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist. Dewdney was the son of Canadian artist and author Selwyn Dewdney and art therapist Irene D ...
's Computer Recreations column
*
Michael Shermer
Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of '' Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientif ...
's Skeptic column
*
James Burke's
Connections
Connections may refer to:
* Connection (disambiguation), plural form
Television
* '' Connections: An Investigation into Organized Crime in Canada'', a documentary television series
* ''Connections'' (British TV series), a 1978 documentary tele ...
Television
From 1990 to 2005 ''Scientific American'' produced a television program on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
called ''
Scientific American Frontiers
''Scientific American Frontiers'' was an American science television program aired by PBS from 1990 to 2005. The show was a companion program to the ''Scientific American'' magazine, and primarily covered new technology and discoveries in science ...
'' with hosts
Woodie Flowers
Woodie Claude Flowers (November 18, 1943 – October 11, 2019) was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas were engineering design and product development; he held the Pappalardo Pr ...
and
Alan Alda
Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner and a three-time Tony Award nominee, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pier ...
.
Books
From 1983 to 1997, ''Scientific American'' has produced an encyclopedia set of volumes from their publishing division, the Scientific American Library. These books were not sold in retail stores, but as a
Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ch ...
selection priced from $24.95 to $32.95.
Topics covered dozens of areas of scientific knowledge and included in-depth essays on: The
Animal Mind; Atmosphere, Climate, and Change; Beyond the Third Dimension; Cosmic Clouds; Cycles of Life • Civilization and the Biosphere; The Discovery of Subatomic Particles; Diversity and the Tropical Rain Forest; Earthquakes and Geological Discovery; Exploring Planetary Worlds; Gravity's Fatal Attraction; Fire; Fossils and the History of Life; From Quarks to the Cosmos; A Guided Tour of the Living Cell; Human Diversity; Perception; The Solar System; Sun and Earth; The Science of Words (Linguistics); The Science of Musical Sound; The Second Law (of Thermodynamics); Stars; Supercomputing and the Transformation of Science.
''Scientific American'' launched a publishing imprint in 2010 in partnership with
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer P ...
.
* A "collection of updated or adapted ''Scientific American'' articles and shorter pieces... ." According to editor Andrea Gawrylewski 'The reader will quickly notice a common theme. ... there really is no debate where the science is concerned. Contributors include
Seth Shostak
Seth Shostak (born July 20, 1943) is an American astronomer and author, and is currently the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute.
Shostak co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast '' Big Picture Science'', has played himself numerous times in ...
,
Paul Offit
Paul Allan Offit (born March 27, 1951) is an American pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases, vaccines, immunology, and virology. He is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine. Offit is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology ...
,
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biology, evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator and author. He is an Oxford fellow, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was Simonyi Professor for the Publ ...
and
Harriet Hall
Harriet A. Hall (July 2, 1945 – January 11, 2023) was an American family medicine, family physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, author, Science communication, science communicator, and scientific skepticism, skeptic. She wrote about alterna ...
.
Scientific and political debate
In April 1950, the U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission ordered ''Scientific American'' to cease publication of an issue containing an article by
Hans Bethe
Hans Albrecht Eduard Bethe (; ; July 2, 1906 – March 6, 2005) was a German-American physicist who made major contributions to nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics and solid-state physics, and received the Nobel Prize in Physi ...
that appeared to reveal classified information about the thermonuclear
hydrogen bomb
A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H-bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lo ...
. Subsequent review of the material determined that the AEC had overreacted. The incident was important for the "new" ''Scientific American''s history, as the AEC's decision to burn 3,000 copies of an early press-run of the magazine containing the offending material appeared to be "
book burning
Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politic ...
in a free society" when publisher Gerard Piel leaked the incident to the press.
In the October 2020 issue of the magazine, it endorsed
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
for the
2020 presidential election, citing
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
's rejection of scientific evidence, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
On December 31, 2019, China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health and Human Services Secreta ...
. In the column reporting the endorsement, the magazine's editors said, "''Scientific American'' has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly." In September 2024 and for the second time in its history, for the same reason, ''Scientific American'' endorsed
Kamala Harris
Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...
for the
2024 United States presidential election
United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. The Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's Ticket (election), ticket—Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of ...
.
In November 2024 editor-in-chief
Laura Helmuth resigned from Scientific American following an apology for a social media post in which she characterized some supporting Trump as fascists.
Throughout her tenure, many critics (including some of Scientific American's former writers) objected to what they viewed as the magazine's shift towards social justice politics at the expense of its scientific credibility.
Awards
* 2010:
IQ Award
The IQ Award is a prize donated by the high-IQ association Mensa International, Mensa to honor people and organisations who have made remarkable contributions to public welfare by an intelligent idea, scientific research about human intelligence ...
for the German edition ''Spektrum der Wissenschaft''
* 2012:
Science in Society Journalism Award, for the editorial board's piece titled "Ban Chimp Testing."
* 2013, the National Association of Science Writers awarded freelancer Douglas Fox in the science reporting category for his article “Witness to an Antarctic Meltdown,” published in ''Scientific American''.
* 2024, Scientific American received seven Telly Awards, which honor excellence in video and television content across all screens. The magazine’s visual compositions on various scientific topics were selected from over 13,000 submissions.
See also
*
14145 Sciam, asteroid named after ''Scientific American''
* ''
American Scientist
''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was moved to ...
''
*
''Discover'' (magazine)
*
Albert Graham Ingalls
Albert Graham Ingalls (January 16, 1888–August 13, 1958) was an American scientific editor and amateur astronomer. Through his columns in ''Scientific American'', including " The Amateur Scientist", and his three-volume series ''Amateur Tel ...
, former editor and author of an
amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy is a hobby where participants enjoy observing or imaging celestial objects in the sky using the Naked eye, unaided eye, binoculars, or telescopes. Even though scientific research may not be their primary goal, some amateur astr ...
column
* ''
New Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a popular science magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organ ...
''
* ''
Scientific American Mind''
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
1845 establishments in the United States
Magazines established in 1845
Magazines published in New York City
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Nature Research academic journals
Popular science magazines
Science and technology magazines published in the United States