New Scientist magazine
Like Flannery, the magazine is popular , but is popularity part of the solution to the brain drain , or part of the problem . Is NS popular amongst the sort of scientists we need to mentor to lead this country to a intellegence led future? What do scientists want more of ? Are NS readers more interested in the results of science ( technology ) than science itself . Be serious because if you want to talk science progress properly we do want to get distracted by silly superficial stuff.
A few years ago the magazine was unashamedly defending "PC scientists say " stuff with long features on correct green house gas controls . But such drama ran short news about the volcanoes and particulate matter and what they were doing to lower temperatures .
NS is , let me put it bluntly , more interested in speculating on the shiny popular and new , than what comes out of the old and boring buildings which really should the only place to give the magazine something to talk about .
Many of us have stopped subscribing; stopped being annoyed by its woosiness , its constant promotion of the new, its failure to take science seriously( the controversial , the cool and the evidence based ) .
NS is particularly annoying because it feeds the lie that it is "a science magazine " - for scientists . We know that popular sciencepromotion is promoting the drip feed that is draining sound reseach and practice in our culture ( good science is often too " boring "to the NS audience )
On the evidence : If Australians were serious about science, and NS about science , they might pay them enough to able to afford the cars that are sold in new scientist?
A few years ago the magazine was unashamedly defending "PC scientists say " stuff with long features on correct green house gas controls . But such drama ran short news about the volcanoes and particulate matter and what they were doing to lower temperatures .
NS is , let me put it bluntly , more interested in speculating on the shiny popular and new , than what comes out of the old and boring buildings which really should the only place to give the magazine something to talk about .
Many of us have stopped subscribing; stopped being annoyed by its woosiness , its constant promotion of the new, its failure to take science seriously( the controversial , the cool and the evidence based ) .
NS is particularly annoying because it feeds the lie that it is "a science magazine " - for scientists . We know that popular sciencepromotion is promoting the drip feed that is draining sound reseach and practice in our culture ( good science is often too " boring "to the NS audience )
On the evidence : If Australians were serious about science, and NS about science , they might pay them enough to able to afford the cars that are sold in new scientist?
I noticed the young women who took my budget driving around in a new convertable BMW yesterday . As a rural advisor she won't be hanging around much longer.
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