String was magazine of science and science-fiction edited in Romania.

The first two issues were edited by Barricade Publishing House, the following of Tornada publishing house in collaboration with Publishing Behold the Man.

The chief editor was Mrs Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea.

Collaborators and members of the editorial team were: Liviu Radu, Mihai Badescu, Romulus Barbulescu, Ion Cristea, Florin Munteanu, Neculai Ghinuți, Calin Popovici and others.

STRING magazine, published quarterly, ceased its activity in 2001.

Magazine String was launched by Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea in 1990, a few months after the establishment of the "String" cenacle. The publication benefits from the financial support of one of the private institutions newly created after the fall of the Ceauşescu regime, Baricada Publishing House, through its patron, Eduard-Victor Gugui. A short note that opens issue 5 speaks of "string theory, the one that gave […] in January 1990 the name of this magazine", which must however be corrected by specifying that, in the mentioned month, it could at most be a project of magazine, since in the midst of the political changes of the revolutionary moment it is impossible to speak of well-established publishing enterprises and, moreover, open to SF initiatives.

More likely is the appearance of the first issue in June 1990, as we find recorded elsewhere. In the editorial scheme, we find Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea, occupying the position of editor-in-chief, alongside Mihai Bădescu (deputy editor-in-chief), Romulus Bărbulescu (literary editor), Florin Munteanu (scientific editor) and several other souls. The subtitle of the publication is "magazine of prospective science and science fiction", which justifies the massive presence of articles popularizing the aspects provided by some frontier scientific research, as well as those reserved for artificial intelligence, "unexplained cases" (CNI) from ocean studies, etc. .

Thus, in number 2, an article titled Artificial intelligence - where? is signed by Dan D. Farcaş, and Mihai Bădescu presents an "interstellar migration" project with vehicles made up of specially arranged comets, while Eugen Celan treats Parapsychology yesterday and today. György Mandics discusses the case of the "strange light bulbs" in the bas-reliefs of the Egyptian temple at Dendera. The SF segment consists of translations of already classic stories, such as The nine billion names of the Lord by Arthur C. Clarke, Car by Harlan Ellison and tercentenary by Joe Haldeman, the part reserved for Romanians being also based on repetitions of older texts, such as the script by George Anania and Romulus Bărbulescu entitled planet of blue umbrellas, taken from CPSF. Among the collaborators of these first two issues we meet Horia Aramă, Dorel Dorian, Alexandru Mironov (with articles about Gérard Klein) and Ştefan Ghidoveanu, who deals with The beginnings of the science fiction film.

Before it could have established its own well-defined profile, the magazine had to face financial upheavals, as a result of the fact that the Baricada Publishing House renounced further support for the project. Number 3 appears under the aegis of Tornada Publishing House and is financed by the Bucharest Youth Foundation. For the next three issues, Tornada Publishing House associates with Ecce Homo Publishing House, until the death of Ion Cristea, the director of the latter and the new financier of the project String. The editorial office is now undergoing transformations, some older names being replaced by Liviu Radu (literary editor), Ion Cristea (scientific editor) and Tudor Popa (responsible for graphics and cover).

Number 5 is doing a special campaign pro domo, publishing materials such as String theory and the unification of physics (excerpts from A Brief History of Time) de Stephen Hawking, The string and the cosmic warp by Fritjaf Capra, String theory and the physics of the future by Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea, String and sci-fi possibilities by Liviu Radu.

After a two-year break, the publication resumes its run with number 7 (appeared in the last quarter of 1997), under the auspices of Tornada Publishing House, but in collaboration with the Center for Prospective Science and Science-Fiction and with funds won through an auction at the Municipal Directorate for Youth and Sport Bucharest. In addition to the editor-in-chief, unchanged, in the composition of the editorial office we now find two literary editors (Liviu Radu and Ana-Maria Negrilă), along with Robert David, who takes over the scientific sector of the magazine.

During the other issues of String, up to no. 19 (the last one we are aware of), the editorial office will continue to undergo changes: Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea appears as director, the editor-in-chief is Robert David (the incisive editorialist of this stage), Ana-Maria Negrilă appears as editorial secretary general , Liviu Radu takes over the duties of the scientific editor, and Costi Gurgu is the literary editor.

During its evolution, the magazine began to pay more attention to original creation, publishing materials by Mihail Grămescu, Jean-Lorin Sterian, Ovidiu Bufnilă, Andrei Valachi, Florin Pîtea and others, among which not least the editorial staff. Proofreading deficiencies sometimes make the texts hard to read, something pointed out at a given moment by Ona Frantz in a comment on number 9 of String, where a story by Ana-Maria Negrilă (Trickster) ends up rejecting its readers "for the simple reason that there are more typos in it than grains of rice in a pepper filled with rice". The truly remarkable part of the publication is the initiative and constancy of the thematic numbers, starting with the already mentioned number 5, dedicated to string, and followed by others, on themes such as mythology, integration, alternative histories, water, Faust, etc.

An award won by the magazine at RomCon 1990 aimed rather to signal its presence in the cultural landscape of publications tasked with promoting Romanian SF in its attempts at post-revolutionary renewal. After ceasing to appear, the publication had another revival - fruitless, unfortunately - through the attempt to relaunch the "String" Center for Prospective Science, Creativity and Fiction. Alexandru Mironov, Ion Hobana, George Anania, Florin Munteanu, as founding members of the Association, as well as Liviu Radu and Ana-Maria Negrilă, as traditional editors of the magazine, tried to "teach string the next generation", as a point from the December 2010 events program sounds.

"String" - prospective science and science fiction magazine. Publisher: Baricada publishing house, Bucharest. Appears in 1990. Editor-in-chief: Mihaela Muraru-Mândrea. Editors: Mihai Bădescu, Romulus Bărbulescu, Florin Munteanu, Călin Popovici. Periodicity: biannual.

No. 1/1990 – format: A4, 48 pages, printed and bound, black and white illustrations, color covers.

No. 2/1990 – format 23×16 cm, 32 pages, black and white illustrations, color covers.

No. 3/1991 – format 20×14 cm, 32 pages, black and white illustrations, black and white covers.

No. 4/1992 – format 24×16 cm, 32 pages, black and white illustrations, black and white covers.

No. 5/1992 – format 24×16 cm, 32 pages, black and white illustrations, color covers.

The editorials, appearing in numbers 3 and 5, explain to the readers the causes that caused the variations in format and number of pages. The aesthetic program is quite unclear: the magazine wants to bring special information, wanting to stimulate Romanian avant-garde thinking (s.n.).

Contents: articles on frontier science, UFO-istics, paleoastronautics, parapsychology, interviews, film scripts, photo illustrations from films, film chronicles, editorial mail.

The editorial formula is interesting, bringing together specialists from related fields: SF writers and graphic artists, scientists, film critics. Due to the low frequency of appearances, the formula of collaborators was preferred over that of employed professionals.

Texts related to the activity String magazine taken from the following web pages:

[1] Wikipedia in Romanian - String

[2] Romanian Society of Science Fiction and Fantasy – SF Magazines - author Mircea Opriţă, material published on September 19, 2011

[3] Nautilus magazine – SF literary press - author Aurel Cărăşel, material published on July 1, 2012