Discover is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc.

He noticed that magazine sales jumped every time the cover featured a science topic.

Jaroff interpreted this as a considerable public interest in science, and in 1971, he began agitating for the creation of a science-oriented magazine.

The "Skeptical Eye" column sought to uncover pop-science scams, and was the medium where James Randi released the results of Project Alpha.

[4] The sudden appearance of so many magazines in the same market space inevitably led to some falling by the wayside, and Discover was left largely alone in its market space by the mid-1980s; it nevertheless decided to appeal to a wider audience by including articles on psychology and psychiatry.

Jaroff told the editor-in-chief that these were not "solid sciences", and was sent back to Discover's parent, Time, Inc.[5] "Skeptical Eye" and other columns disappeared, and articles covered more controversial, speculative topics (like "How the Universe Will End").

In 1987, Time, Inc. sold Discover to Family Media, the owners of Health, Golf Illustrated, Homeowner, 1,001 Home Ideas and World Tennis, for $26 million.

[8] Disney doubled the magazine's photography and its content budget to overcome skipping two issues in Family Media's shutdown and ownership change.

From 1983–1990, PBS aired Discover: The World of Science, a monthly hour-long news magazine featuring topics from the publication and hosted by Peter Graves.