In 1921, the world was still struggling to recover from the ravages of World War I and the influenza pandemic that had killed 50 million people. The global economy slid into a brief depression. The media magnate E.W. Scripps was contemplating the parallel goals he saw in science and journalism: to discover how the world works, and to explain it truthfully and in a way that people can understand. An informed, educated public, he believed, was essential to a democratic society.
Scripps was appalled by the media’s willingness to promote fake cures and dangerous theories, writing in 1919 that “there is a vast quantity of misinformation being constantly spread abroad by our newspapers.”
To combat that misinformation and to help people learn how to “think like a scientist,” in 1921 Scripps – together with his friend, zoologist William E. Ritter -- founded Science Service, an independent news service that covered the latest scientific research for publication in newspapers. Those weekly bulletins became so popular that starting in 1922, they were bundled into Science News-Letter, a stand-alone publication for the general public, which evolved into Science News magazine.
Over the decades, we have stayed true to our founders’ mission. Science News reporters covered the discovery of insulin as a treatment for diabetes in 1922 and traveled to Tennessee in 1925 to cover the Scopes “monkey trial” that challenged the teaching of evolution. We were on the scene at Bikini Atoll to witness the 1946 atomic weapons tests, and in 1959, first reported on data showing that Earth is warming. We covered the revolution in computing that has transformed science and society from the era of vacuum tubes. And we’ve tirelessly covered the coronavirus pandemic, both the extraordinary scientific efforts to combat the virus and its toll on society.
A century after our founding, top-quality, fiercely accurate reporting on key advances in science, technology, and medicine has never been more important than it is today – or more in need of your support. The best way to help? Subscribe.
Sincerely,
Nancy Shute
Editor-in-Chief, Science News
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