I am very perturbed by this news. I can’t say I read the New Scientist regularly these days, but my parents subscribe to it, so growing up I used to occasionally read it’s fascinating articles. It’s one of the best sources for news of the scientific world. However, to read that the magazine has now been bought by the group which publishes the Daily Mail, a rag I wouldn’t wipe my arse with for fear of insulting my shit, has me very concerned indeed. Of course, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) claims it will guarantee the magazine’s continued editorial independence, but this is coming from the publishers of a rag known to lie through it’s teeth in order to impose it’s highly conservative, narrow minded, socially intolerant worldview onto public discourse. Zark knows what they plan to do with the New Scientist, or the unscientific, anachronistic codswallop they’ll have it churning out. It’s quite sad, really: a fascinating little magazine now stands to be taken over by people for whom most scientific, progressive ideas are an anathema; yet another victim of the ever-deepening culture war.