My window to the World

A long time ago, during the holidays my friend and i had decided to visit a bookstore ALL DAY. We had made plans to go there and spend the entire day going through books, sharing stories and having long conversations on them.
What a wonderful way to spend ones time, we thought!
But alas, that day never really came, our holidays were over long before we knew it and once again we were submerged in the college rountine.
Finally, out of the blue when we met last week, we both had this overwhelming urge to visit the bookstore. We hardly had any time in our hands but still, we went there.

The moment i entered the store, my eyes fell on the periodicals rack. Stacked neatly between Better Photography and Spiderman was......The National Geographic Magazine.
I think a smile must have crossed my face when i laid my eyes on it!
I picked it up like someone picking up a priceless piece of jewellery. For the next hour or so i had forgotten about my horrible college, my journal submissions, my reports...everything.
i just sat there and all i did was just go through the stuff the magazine had to offer.

I had tried subscribing to this magazine in my school days but sadly it never really got delivered. I was later told that the moment the courier boys learn that you are receiving an expensive world class periodical, instead of delivering it to you, they sell it in the market and earn a little extra money for themselves.
So i read old issues from Dad's friends. They were, as their advertisement described, my window to the world!!!I spent countless hours visiting tribesmen in Papua New Guineu or traced mass extinctions that occured 65 million years ago. All those days came flooding back to me as i sat there in absolute bliss.

As i sifted through this particular issue, i asked myself, what is it that makes National Geographic tick?
Well, consider this:
On a given page there was some information regarding snowflakes. A genius dude at Caltech had worked on them and found that their shapes were closely linked to the temperature at which they were formed. If you read the actual research paper on this topic, i'm sure you would think its in greek. But these cool guys at national geographic had made an attractive page describing the research in a few simple words.

This is an age when people studying science are considered geeks and are not treated with the kind of respect they deserve. I have read that in the nineteeth century people from all walks of life took active interest in the work scientists were doing. There used to be discussions in large halls on matters of science that were attended by the common man. Today, all the people interested in science are the scientists themselves, i think (with a very few exceptions). The main reason for this is that people do not understand scientific jargon. The moment you don't understand whats being talked about, you obviously loose interest in whats being said. Moreover, they find the jargon intimidating.
Thats what makes National Geographic My Favourite Magazine. Scientific work is being made available to the public. Presentation of highly technical work to the common man is what they are doing, hats off to them!