Scientific American

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Lore & Background

Scientific American was founded by inventor and publisher Rufus Porter 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 machines, an 1860 device for buoying vessels by Abraham Lincoln, and the universal joint. 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 and Orson Desaix Munn a mere ten months after founding it. 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. In the years after World War II, the magazine fell into decline. In 1948, three partners—publisher Gerard Piel, editor Dennis Flanagan, and general manager Donald H. Miller Jr.—purchased the assets of the old Scientific American and put its name on the designs they had created for their new magazine, essentially creating a new magazine. Circulation had grown fifteen-fold since 1948 by 1984. In 1986, it was sold to the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. In the fall of 2008, Scientific American was put under the control of Holtzbrinck's Nature Publishing Group division. In June 2026, Springer Nature sold Scientific American to LabX Media Group.

Reader's Guide

Scientific American holds a unique place in American publishing as the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, with a history spanning from 1845 to the present. Its significance lies in bridging the gap between scientific research and the general public, featuring contributions from luminaries such as Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, and over 150 Nobel Prize-winners. The magazine has undergone several transformations: from a weekly newspaper focused on patent reports to a monthly popular science magazine under the post-1948 ownership of Gerard Piel, Dennis Flanagan, and Donald H. Miller Jr., which revived its fortunes. Its international editions, beginning with Spanish in 1890 (titled La América Científica é Industrial) and expanding to Italian (Le Scienze, 1968), Japanese (Nikkei Science, 1971), Spanish for Spain (Investigación y Ciencia, 1976), French (Pour la Science, 1977), German (Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 1978), Russian (V Mire Nauki), Polish (Świat Nauki, 1991), Taiwanese (Scientist, 2002), and Dutch (2003), demonstrate its global reach. The magazine has also faced controversies, including a 2013 incident involving blogger Danielle N. Lee who was called a 'whore' in an email by an editor at Biology Online, and subsequent sexual harassment allegations against blog editor Bora Zivkovic that led to his resignation from Scientific American. The Scientific American 50 award, started in 2002, recognizes contributions to science and technology during the magazine's previous year, with winners appearing in the December issue. Its legacy endures as a trusted source for science communication, despite changes in ownership and editorial direction.

Did You Know?

• Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States, in print since 1845.
• More than 150 Nobel Prize-winners have been featured in the magazine since its inception.
• The first issue was a four-page weekly newspaper released on August 28, 1845, in New York City.
• In 2009, collegiate library yearly subscription prices increased by nearly 500% for print and 50% for online access to $1,500 yearly.
• The magazine produced a television program on PBS called Scientific American Frontiers from 1990 to 2005, hosted by Woodie Flowers and Alan Alda.