Governed as it is by the most pressing interests and needs of its readers, this publication tends to focus on matters of the present. Happily, our Book Reviews pages often supply a welcome relief from such temporal myopia. In particular, the “In retrospect” feature in that section throws an occasional spotlight on some notable book plucked from the past. The impact of this exercise can be surprising — an essay on the possible influence of a meteorologist on Jane Austen's Emma stimulated articles on the front pages of newspapers on more than one continent.

Now a new millennium approaches. The turn of the year 2000 is fundamentally spurious as an anniversary, and special measures can ultimately be justified only by a peculiar human partiality for round numbers — whatever their origin. But the event has turned into something of a stimulus — not only to check computer systems (which we expect to work just fine), but also to take stock and look back on science's past. Later this year, we shall also look forward.

So it is that, from this week, we apply the principle of “In retrospect” to the wider sweep of science's history. We have invited a number of people — both in science and outside it — to write one-page essays that reflect not necessarily on the great discoveries but on any person or event, drawn from any time in the past 1,000 years, that they feel is worth highlighting for any reason at all — so long as it is in some sense relevant to a scientific readership.

We start with the reflections of Freeman Dyson (see page 27). These weekly contributions will testify not only to the breadth of interest of their authors, but also to the fact that the nooks and crannies of history can be as compelling as its landmarks.