I stumbled across this magazine at the house of a historian of science. The subjects vary from mind-numbingly boring to absolutely riveting. Articles are generally aimed at the well-educated layperson; clearly many of the authors are graduate students in history of science who need a little extra cash, so they put together a popular version of what their thesis will be, if they actually manage to get the thing written before starving to death on a grad student stipend…
Some great articles that I remember:
- The technology of tunnel-digging machines. Each one is designed from scratch for the particular tunnel size and particular type of earth to be excavated, assembled in place and used only once.
- The technology of the Star Wars IV (the first one, that is). Lucas’ crew built a state-of-the-art precision computerized 5-axis camera controller to shoot multiple takes of the surface of the Death Star to be superimposed for the final film.