As Britain and many parts of the world emerged from the Great War, economic depression set in many industrialized countries and workers demanded more rights, pushing social issues to the fore. These would dominate the thinking of Nature's new Editor, Richard Gregory, as he forged a more modern, forward-looking journal. Under Gregory, editorials on social or scientific issues were written every week, not just occasionally. He culled the vast list of leader writers to a hand-picked few, and was not afraid to embrace new ideas, such as the then-fashionable theories of eugenics. Traditional issues on science education, reform and state involvement continued to be discussed, as was the campaign to recognize science journalism as a profession. The magazine was bolstered by major new discoveries in physics, such as alpha-particle decay and the phenomenon of thermal noise, and an entire special issue was devoted to Einstein's theory of relativity (see 1921).
An Editor passes; an Editor joins
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer died on 16 August 1920, aged 84, leaving four sons and two daughters from his first marriage. His contributions to science, science education at schools and universities, scientific reform and science communication are almost immeasurable. He advanced the study of the Sun by many years, provided inspiration for the Science Museum, and developed science journalism — without him it is doubtful whether Nature would exist in the form it does today (or would even have existed at all). His hard work, determination, creative flair and commercial savvy, crossed with his characteristic bloody-mindedness, made the journal a success and it won him many friends and more than a few enemies over the years. A truly great and unforgettable giant of science (see Nature's Obituary for more). 1920 was also the year that a future (joint) Editor, physicist Arthur J. V. Gale, joined Nature from Cambridge. In contrast to Lockyer, very little is known about him. Image shows Lockyer (seated second from right), Norman Lockyer Observatory.
The new leader
Although Richard Gregory (pictured) now Sir Richard Gregory, had been at the helm of Nature for more than a decade, the end of the Great War and Lockyer's passing gave him a free hand to bring Nature into the post-war era. There were significant changes to the magazine and it is under Gregory that Nature begins to evolve in the direction of its current form. Editorials had often been book reviews under Lockyer, but from 1919 Gregory instigated comment on a major social or scientific issue every week. Gregory continued Lockyer's passion for education, but the social and political issues of science were the subjects through which Gregory's zeal and passion for science as a curative agent for society's ills would flow. To this end, he trimmed the hundreds of leader writers of Lockyer's era to tens, with just four men writing 17 per cent of the editorials of the 1920s. Image copyright reserved; collection National Portrait Gallery London.
1921
A relatively special issue
One of the many changes to the maturing journal in the 1920s includes what may have been the first-ever special issue. Every page of the February 1921 edition is devoted to Einstein's theory of relativity and the introduction begins by noting the interest of the theory for general readers — "...as all thinking people have pondered over the metaphysics of infinity and eternity..." — and announces that a very large sum of five thousand dollars has recently been awarded by Scientific American for the clearest account yet of the theory. Einstein (pictured in 1921) states that there is "...something attractive in presenting the evolution of a sequence of ideas as simply as possible...", but this is perhaps overly optimistic for general readers, considering the complexity of what follows his claim that "...the whole ascent is composed of small, almost self-evident steps of thought.". However, a series of short articles accompanies Einstein's (translated) article and serve to simplify and decode the complex theories, much as Nature's 'News & Views' section would in the 1960s onwards.
1924
Nature and eugenics
Eugenics is the theory of improving the human race through the selective breeding (positive eugenics) of desirable traits and selective sterilization (negative eugenics) to prevent the spread of negative traits. The term was first coined by Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin, and described in his book Heredity Genius of 1869. The early nineteenth century had brought neo-Darwinism to the fore, which crossed evolutionary theory with the quantitative study of population genetics. Now on a firmer scientific footing, eugenics by the 1920s was thought of as vaccination is seen today — an essential means of improving the health, intelligence and future of the human race (see picture, published for The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics, New York, 1921). Gregory was vice-president of the Marie Stopes' Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress (now Marie Stopes International, and his correspondence with them is available in the British Library. Nature published the first of a clutch of pro-eugenics leaders in 1924, but ran articles on the topic as early as 1901 as well as in 1904 and 1905 and even listed 'Local associations for promoting eugenics' in 1908.
Nature, Gregory and science journalism
Lockyer took science journalism seriously and his sense for a good story was one of his strengths. As Editor of Nature, Gregory did much to continue promoting the idea of science journalism. In an address to the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux (ASLIB), Gregory complained that there was little in the way of science journalism in newspapers and their staff were ill-qualified to write about science. He drew the association's attention to the Science Service a not-for-profit corporation founded in the United States in 1921 by newspaper proprietor E. W. Scripps (pictured). Taking this as his example, Gregory went on to found a science news service run by the British Science Guild in 1924, an early forerunner to the Association of British Science Writers. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution archives. Record Unit 90-105, image # SIA2007-0010.
The man-ape of South Africa, described in a paper by Raymond Dart (pictured with the skull), caused a sensation upon publication and placed Nature on the world stage before a popular audience. Until now, Nature's scoops were mostly in physics — the discovery of electrons, radioactivity, isotopes, X-rays — but here was as author contending that humans originated in Africa, "...thus vindicating the Darwinian claim that Africa would prove to be the cradle of mankind". Many disagreed with Dart's findings and preferred the prevailing view that man originated in Eurasia, but this was the first time that fossil evidence from Africa had been presented and Dart was correct in predicting that many more would follow: "In Southern Africa...we may be confident in anticipating many complementary discoveries concerning this period in our evolution." See Editors & Eras for a special essay on palaeoanthropology in Nature.
1927
The wave-like nature of electrons
In 1927 two important papers arrived in the Nature offices that advanced understanding of physics at the quantum level and led to inventions such as the electron microscope. The first, by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer (pictured), is a fine example of how discovery is often catalysed by accident: in 1924, a bottle of liquefied air exploded in the laboratory where they were bombarding nickel with electrons to investigate its structure; the glass tube containing the nickel cracked and the angular distribution of the reflected electrons changed. Further experiments revealed that the pattern was determined by the crystal structure of the nickel target, not the intrinsic atomic structure of nickel. Comparison with the energies of X-rays striking the same target indicated that the electrons were behaving as waves, not particles. Just two months later, Alexander Reid and George Thomson (son of electron-discoverer J. J. Thomson) submitted a paper that confirmed the finding by diffraction, rather than reflection, and Davisson and Thomson duly shared the 1937 Nobel Prize for Physics.
1929
A socialist agenda
As Britain emerged from the ravages of the Great War, Nature took on social issues with an opinionated fervour previously unseen in the journal. In 1920 Gregory lamented the schemes for securing greater pay for less labour "whilst the vastly more important subject of the creation of wealth through scientific discovery and industrial application is almost unheeded by the very people who profit by it." In 1924 "more work" was the remedy offered for the ills of the British coal industry (Tyldesley miners during the 1926 UK General Strike are pictured), and collieries were criticized for insufficient support of their own research association. In an era when Marxist principles emerged in Russia, Nature occasionally advocated from 1927 that the administration of agriculture and industrial research should become the responsibility of the state. But the leader writers did not always agree - and the nationalization of research by the state was later rejected. See 'Nature and Politics between the Wars' for more.
As Britain and many parts of the world emerged from the Great War, economic depression set in many industrialized countries and workers demanded more rights, pushing social issues to the fore. These would dominate the thinking of Nature's new Editor, Richard Gregory, as he forged a more modern, forward-looking journal. Under Gregory, editorials on social or scientific issues were written every week, not just occasionally. He culled the vast list of leader writers to a hand-picked few, and was not afraid to embrace new ideas, such as the then-fashionable theories of eugenics. Traditional issues on science education, reform and state involvement continued to be discussed, as was the campaign to recognize science journalism as a profession. The magazine was bolstered by major new discoveries in physics, such as alpha-particle decay and the phenomenon of thermal noise, and an entire special issue was devoted to Einstein's theory of relativity (see 1921). 
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer died on 16 August 1920, aged 84, leaving four sons and two daughters from his first marriage. His contributions to science, science education at schools and universities, scientific reform and science communication are almost immeasurable. He advanced the study of the Sun by many years, provided inspiration for the Science Museum, and developed science journalism — without him it is doubtful whether Nature would exist in the form it does today (or would even have existed at all). His hard work, determination, creative flair and commercial savvy, crossed with his characteristic bloody-mindedness, made the journal a success and it won him many friends and more than a few enemies over the years. A truly great and unforgettable giant of science (see Nature's Obituary for more). 1920 was also the year that a future (joint) Editor, physicist Arthur J. V. Gale, joined Nature from Cambridge. In contrast to Lockyer, very little is known about him. Image shows Lockyer (seated second from right), Norman Lockyer Observatory. 
Although Richard Gregory (pictured) now Sir Richard Gregory, had been at the helm of Nature for more than a decade, the end of the Great War and Lockyer's passing gave him a free hand to bring Nature into the post-war era. There were significant changes to the magazine and it is under Gregory that Nature begins to evolve in the direction of its current form. Editorials had often been book reviews under Lockyer, but from 1919 Gregory instigated comment on a major social or scientific issue every week. Gregory continued Lockyer's passion for education, but the social and political issues of science were the subjects through which Gregory's zeal and passion for science as a curative agent for society's ills would flow. To this end, he trimmed the hundreds of leader writers of Lockyer's era to tens, with just four men writing 17 per cent of the editorials of the 1920s. Image copyright reserved; collection National Portrait Gallery London. 
One of the many changes to the maturing journal in the 1920s includes what may have been the first-ever special issue. Every page of the February 1921 edition is devoted to Einstein's theory of relativity and the introduction begins by noting the interest of the theory for general readers — "...as all thinking people have pondered over the metaphysics of infinity and eternity..." — and announces that a very large sum of five thousand dollars has recently been awarded by Scientific American for the clearest account yet of the theory. Einstein (pictured in 1921) states that there is "...something attractive in presenting the evolution of a sequence of ideas as simply as possible...", but this is perhaps overly optimistic for general readers, considering the complexity of what follows his claim that "...the whole ascent is composed of small, almost self-evident steps of thought.". However, a series of short articles accompanies Einstein's (translated) article and serve to simplify and decode the complex theories, much as Nature's 'News & Views' section would in the 1960s onwards. 
Eugenics is the theory of improving the human race through the selective breeding (positive eugenics) of desirable traits and selective sterilization (negative eugenics) to prevent the spread of negative traits. The term was first coined by Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's cousin, and described in his book Heredity Genius of 1869. The early nineteenth century had brought neo-Darwinism to the fore, which crossed evolutionary theory with the quantitative study of population genetics. Now on a firmer scientific footing, eugenics by the 1920s was thought of as vaccination is seen today — an essential means of improving the health, intelligence and future of the human race (see picture, published for The Second International Exhibition of Eugenics, New York, 1921). Gregory was vice-president of the Marie Stopes' Society for Constructive Birth Control and Racial Progress (now Marie Stopes International, and his correspondence with them is available in the British Library. Nature published the first of a clutch of pro-eugenics leaders in 1924, but ran articles on the topic as early as 1901 as well as in 1904 and 1905 and even listed 'Local associations for promoting eugenics' in 1908. 
Lockyer took science journalism seriously and his sense for a good story was one of his strengths. As Editor of Nature, Gregory did much to continue promoting the idea of science journalism. In an address to the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux (ASLIB), Gregory complained that there was little in the way of science journalism in newspapers and their staff were ill-qualified to write about science. He drew the association's attention to the Science Service a not-for-profit corporation founded in the United States in 1921 by newspaper proprietor E. W. Scripps (pictured). Taking this as his example, Gregory went on to found a science news service run by the British Science Guild in 1924, an early forerunner to the Association of British Science Writers. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution archives. Record Unit 90-105, image # SIA2007-0010. 
Nature's first Editor, Sir Norman Lockyer, was a founding member of The British Science Guild (BSG), which was formed in 1905 to lobby for science's place in society and to highlight its role in progress; it had a more political dimension than the British Association (BA) could muster. The BSG is credited with a number of improvements, such as the Treasury grant for a National Physical Laboratory (the first site at Bushy Park is pictured) and the creation of a Development Commission for Agriculture. Nature's second Editor, Sir Richard Gregory, continued to support the guild by publicizing its events, activities and politics in Nature, and became Chairman of the Executive Committees in 1922, the same year he became President of Section L (education) of the BA. Holding two similar posts, Gregory resisted attempts in 1923 to merge the BSG with the BA, saying that the BA consisted of "priests and noviciates of science," but the BSG represented a "a missionary effort to proclaim a new gospel". Image Courtesy of NPL © Crown Copyright 1995.
The man-ape of South Africa, described in a paper by Raymond Dart (pictured with the skull), caused a sensation upon publication and placed Nature on the world stage before a popular audience. Until now, Nature's scoops were mostly in physics — the discovery of electrons, radioactivity, isotopes, X-rays — but here was as author contending that humans originated in Africa, "...thus vindicating the Darwinian claim that Africa would prove to be the cradle of mankind". Many disagreed with Dart's findings and preferred the prevailing view that man originated in Eurasia, but this was the first time that fossil evidence from Africa had been presented and Dart was correct in predicting that many more would follow: "In Southern Africa...we may be confident in anticipating many complementary discoveries concerning this period in our evolution." See Editors & Eras for a special essay on palaeoanthropology in Nature.
In 1927 two important papers arrived in the Nature offices that advanced understanding of physics at the quantum level and led to inventions such as the electron microscope. The first, by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer (pictured), is a fine example of how discovery is often catalysed by accident: in 1924, a bottle of liquefied air exploded in the laboratory where they were bombarding nickel with electrons to investigate its structure; the glass tube containing the nickel cracked and the angular distribution of the reflected electrons changed. Further experiments revealed that the pattern was determined by the crystal structure of the nickel target, not the intrinsic atomic structure of nickel. Comparison with the energies of X-rays striking the same target indicated that the electrons were behaving as waves, not particles. Just two months later, Alexander Reid and George Thomson (son of electron-discoverer J. J. Thomson) submitted a paper that confirmed the finding by diffraction, rather than reflection, and Davisson and Thomson duly shared the 1937 Nobel Prize for Physics. 
As Britain emerged from the ravages of the Great War, Nature took on social issues with an opinionated fervour previously unseen in the journal. In 1920 Gregory lamented the schemes for securing greater pay for less labour "whilst the vastly more important subject of the creation of wealth through scientific discovery and industrial application is almost unheeded by the very people who profit by it." In 1924 "more work" was the remedy offered for the ills of the British coal industry (Tyldesley miners during the 1926 UK General Strike are pictured), and collieries were criticized for insufficient support of their own research association. In an era when Marxist principles emerged in Russia, Nature occasionally advocated from 1927 that the administration of agriculture and industrial research should become the responsibility of the state. But the leader writers did not always agree - and the nationalization of research by the state was later rejected. See 'Nature and Politics between the Wars' for more. 
