We are pleased to present our new Archives feature “Modern commentaries – throwing new light on the past” realised in partnership with SciencePod.

In 2020, to mark our 100 anniversary and celebrate our rich, scientific heritage, we made a selection of original articles from our archives written by Nobel Prize Winners.

The following articles are now freely available:

To see if these articles have stood the test of time, we invited expert science writers from SciencePOD to take a look and write a modern commentary for each article which we are now pleased to share. The results are fascinating! Not only have the articles stood up well, but they also remain relevant to today’s research and enable new understanding of the ‘long view’.

In the case of Marie Curie, “The importance of Curie’s determination of the relative atomic mass of radium cannot be overstated. In 1911, upon accepting the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Curie herself comments that “the task of isolating radium is the cornerstone of the edifice of the science of radioactivity”.” The commentary goes on to say, “More important, their [Marie and Pierre] work laid strong foundations for a field of study that would profoundly change scientific disciplines ranging from geology – with the first radiometric estimates for the age of the earth taking place around 1907 – to medicine.”

We are convinced that preserving legacy journal content and making it available for modern scientists and researchers is the key for the perpetual advancement of science. Archives provide historical context for current research and aid new discoveries.

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