<p>I want to major in Bio/Chem/Biochem in college and I really want to get more into scientific journals or any science related articles to learn more about these areas.
I already read a ton of nonfiction books in my free time (I love Freakonomics, anything Malcolm Gladwell) but I'm trying to get into some more heavily scientific material.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for scientific journals or articles or magazines that are interesting but not impossible for an intelligent high school student to read?
Thanks in advance, everyone!</p>
<p>Science News doesn’t print original research, but provides summaries of new research in a variety of fields and presents them in a way non-experts can understand. Check it out online and then subscribe to the online or print editions if you’re interested. The articles provide a citation to the original research if you want to pursue it further. The hardcopy is a very thin biweekly publication. [Science</a> News](<a href=“http://www.sciencenews.org/]Science”>http://www.sciencenews.org/)</p>
<p>For a more technical read which is more representative of what you would find in actual research journals, click over to PLOS ONE and look for something on a topic that interests you. Like most research publications, these articles are written for other scientists working in the same field, so don’t expect to have the background yet to understand a lot of what you find there. [PLOS</a> ONE : accelerating the publication of peer-reviewed science](<a href=“http://www.plosone.org/]PLOS”>http://www.plosone.org/)</p>
<p>The two most widely-cited scientific journals on news websites are probably Nature and Science. Despite their inviting titles, these are both highly technical journals and not for the faint of heart.</p>
<p>Science and Nature articles can be extremely painful to read. They jam pack insane amounts of information in as little space as possible. It might take you 1 hour just to read a page, look at all the figures, and comprehend everything depending on the article. </p>
<p>For bio/chem/biochem the journal of biological chemistry isn’t so bad. It’s also the most cited journal in the world. I think all JBC papers are accessible for free.</p>
<p>If you want to read interesting, intelligent material that is not too ‘painful’ as one poster put it, Discover magazine covers a variety of science topics and is well-written.</p>
<p>Scientific American can be good although it can get a bit off the walls at times. I’d recommend you read a longer article in one of the science magazines for the masses and if the topic interests you, read a book for the masses about the topic. THEN if you want to get more in depth, read related papers in journals.</p>
<p>I get Scientific American, and Astronomy. I pick up issues of both Nature and Science occasionally, but articles in there are extremely technical…definitely not for the casual “pop-sci” reader.</p>
<p>I will likely pick get a subscription to Nature before too much longer.</p>