Science_Service

Science Service

Science Service was a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including the weekly Science News magazine. On January 10, 2008, Science Service was renamed Society for Science & the Public (SSP).

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the 501(c)3 non-profit organization works primarily to recruit more pre-college students to pursue science, math, and engineering fields in college. Science Service publishes Science News and sponsors events including the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the Intel Science Talent Search, and the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.

History

Edward W. Scripps, a renowned journalist, and William Emerson Ritter, a California zoologist, founded the Science Service in 1921 with the goal of keeping the public informed of scientific achievements. Scripps funded the project and Ritter served as the first scientific director. Although Scripps died in 1926, Watson Davis continued to lead the editorial staff of the The Science News-Letter, which was renamed to Science News in 1966. That year, this simple newsletter attracted enough readers that the staff decided to reformat it to be a magazine. Over the next two decades, Science Service also broadcast their news on Radio News of the Week. As parts of its mission to educate the public about science, the Science Service launched the Things of Science program in November of 1940. Subscribers received monthly kits on a variety of science-related topics. In 1941, Science Service collaborated with the American Institute of the City of New York to create science clubs across the United States. The next year, Science Service and Westinghouse held the first Science Talent Search. With eight years of success with the talent search, Science Service decided in 1950 to boost the National Science Fair, which soon became the International Science and Engineering Fair. In 1953, Science Service began its Interlingua Division, which made science literature available to a large audience by translating it into Interlingua. Science News-Letter was renamed Science News in 1966. Both the Science Talent Search and the International Science and Engineering Fair received title sponsorship from Intel in 1998. The Discovery Channel's Young Scientist Challenge began in 1999 as Science Service's newest innovation.