Seventy years of 'Amateur Scientist' on CD-ROM

Scientific American magazine and software publisher, Tinker’s Guild, have released a CD-ROM version of the complete 20th century collection of the magazine’s “Amateur Scientist” column.

“The Amateur Scientist” CD, which has a suggested retail price of US$89.99, runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Unix systems and contains the following features:

Over 1,000 how-to projects covering every major field of science;

The complete columns of Albert Ingalls, C. L. Stong, Jearl Walker, Forrest Mims, and Shawn Carlson;

Full text search capability;

Extensive material on building science apparatus from vacuum technique to glass-blowing;

A database of chemicals, their properties, and safety requirements;

Links to companies and organizations that can help in research;

A library of science-related demos, shareware, and public domain software;

Tips and hints by other amateur scientists;

Indexes for browsing by year or subject.

Amateur Scientist author, Dr. Shawn Carlson, edits the CD. The column itself has been running in Scientific American since 1928. Tinker’s Guild is a collaboration between Carlson and Sheldon Greaves, Ph.D. Launched in February 1999, its goal is to publish resources for science hobbyists, educators, and science professionals from all walks of life.