Visuals: Nature Magazine evolves

By The English Farm on 9月 22 2022
Evergreen

Nature Magazine is one of the world’s most important international weekly scientific journals. According to its website, it publishes “peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions.”

The first issue was published in 1869. Since then, the magazine has changed quite a bit. Have a look at the graph below and discuss with your teacher how the content has evolved over the past 150 years.

 

Teaching notes

You don't need to present all the findings, but, interestingly, Nature has become a lot more focused on biological and medical fields while earth sciences has decreased. Also, "other" has decreased—meaning the magazine is more focused on core topics. 

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Discussion
Take a quick look at the graph. Which fields have become more common in Nature, and which less?
Present the key changes as if you were speaking to a small group.
What type of people do you think read Nature Magazine?
Would a mathematician find this publication useful?