November 1869. The Suez Canal opens between the Red and Med seas, greatly improving international trade. The famous clipper Cutty Sark, currently being restored after a disasterous fire, is launched. And in offices near Strand in London, a certain scientific periodical is launched.

Almost 140 years on, Nature’s long and illustrious past is celebrated on a new website. History of the Journal Nature features videos, illustrated timelines, an interactive journal club, specially commissioned essays and entire book chapters devoted to our parent journal.

For those interested in the history of scholarly communication it’s full of tidbits. My favourite is T.H. Huxley’s reaction upon hearing that the journal was to be called Nature.

“What a glorious title, “Nature”, a veritable stroke of genius to have hit upon. It is more than a cosmos, more than a universe. It includes the seen and the unseen, the possible as well as the actual, Nature and Nature’s God, mind and matter. I am lost in admiration for the effulgent blaze of ideas it calls forth."

I think he liked it.

If anyone’s interested in seeing a copy of the first issue, come along to the next London meet-up (31 October).