New Scientist archived to 1989

Via MetaFilter: New Scientist.

MetaFilter reports that Google Books now has a searchable archive of full issues of the British science magazine New Scientist, from its November 1956 launch to December 1989.

For many (myself included) this will make for nostalgic reading; when I was at school doing sciences, subscription to New Scientist was standard. Its style decades ago was considerably more academic - it was not, as now, a popular-readership magazine about science, but more a magazine by scientists for scientists that assumed a degree of scientific literacy even in its general readership.

Even if you don't read the main articles, other highlights include the quaint adverts (such as this page from 8th January 1959 advertising the Curta mechanical calculator, W&F Faulkner's Ascot Gold Cut tobacco, and "making the most of lead"); Bill Tidy's Grimbledown Down strip, which satirised a research establishment; and David E. H. Jones's brilliant Ariadne column,which brought a weekly satirical look at the science world along with the scientific exploits of Ariadne's many-epitheted friend Daedalus and his fictional (but often only slightly implausible) inventions, such as a locomotive fuelled by grass harvested between the rails.

- Ray