Non scientist to edit American Scientist

The magazine American Scientist is one of those hidden gems of science publishing. It quietly gets on with its job while flashier players grab all the limelight. The magazine, published by Sigma Xi, "the international honor society of research scientists and engineers," now has a new editor, David Schoonmaker.

For some reason, in the press release about his appointment, he admits that he is "not a scientist". He has been managing editor of the magazine – the UK uses the same label to describe a different role – for 15 years, so must have soaked up something of the area. And as he says himself, "I have a deep and abiding love for and interest in science. Growing up with a geologist father, I could tell a syncline from an anticline by age six." That's more than you can say for many a scientist turned science writer.