U.S. monthly magazine interpreting scientific developments to lay readers.
It was founded in 1845 as a newspaper describing new inventions. By 1853 its circulation had reached 30,000 and it was reporting on various sciences, such as astronomy and medicine, apart from inventions. In 1921 it became a monthly. From its founding it used woodcut illustrations, and it was one of the first papers to use halftone illustrations. Its articles
solidly based on scholarly research, well written, carefully edited, and accompanied by definitions of scientific terms and by illustrations
have made it the most highly regarded magazine of its genre.