Scientific American

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine reaches more than three million readers globally by subscription, on newsstands, and online at www.sciam.com. The company also publishes Scientific American Explorations, a quarterly family magazine, and Scientific American Archive, an online archive of issues from 1993 to the present at www.sciamarchive.com. SHAWN CARLSON has authored Scientific American's "The Amateur Scientist" column since 1995. He is the Executive Director of the Society for Amateur Scientists and a 1999 winner of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius" Fellowship.