New Scientist
From RationalWiki
New Scientist is a popular British science magazine based in London and published weekly (on a Wednesday or Thursday, depending on timezones). It features new developments in pure and applied science as well as technology. The magazine covers a wide range of scientific work ranging from speculative material to hard science. Both scientists and lay readers value New Scientist, as do news reporters who frequently base newspaper articles on material originally published in the magazine. There are further editions in Australia and the United States.
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[edit] Professor Lenski
The New Scientist article on Professor Richard Lenski's E. coli experiment[1] launched the "Lenski affair", accelerating him to 15 minutes of internet fame and an email exchange described as "All time classic creationist pwnage".[2]
[edit] "Darwin Was Wrong"
New Scientist is not a journal. Although its articles are usually well-written and report quite respectable science, it does have a bad habit of sensationalizing things a little. Often trivial things will be quote mined to produce a fancy cover and headline. The most controversial being the "Darwin Was Wrong" cover.[3] This was immediately jumped on by creationists and IDiots and widely criticised by science bloggers as giving the impression that all of evolution was wrong.
In fact the article revealed nothing of the kind, and the supposed breakthrough on the cover was actually a fairly minor point in regards to changing the theories of natural selection. The publication defended the cover on account of the story inside being accurate and supporting evolution. But the damage was done and creationists the world over now have a picture of New Scientist declaring that "Darwin Was Wrong", which, for their goal of turning science into a personality cult, was good enough.
