Only 600 or so hand-picked students get to attend the annual Nobel Laureate Meetings at Lindau in Germany, but anyone can 'virtually' attend a selection of historical lectures. Alison Abbott, Nature's senior European correspondent, describes the history of these meetings on The Great Beyond (http://tinyurl.com/pczhrd).

Count Lennart Bernadotte, great-grandson of Sweden's King Oscar II, who awarded the first Nobels, launched the meetings in post-war Germany to encourage the country's isolated doctors and scientists. In 2005, the meetings were updated to allow students from around the globe to mingle with top scientists.

Now, 100 years after the count's birth, 11 lectures from historical meetings have been digitalized and made available through the meeting's website (http://www.lindau-nobel.de). “The cleaned up voice recordings, accompanied by an introduction and charming black-and-white photos taken in Lindau, bring legendary scientists to life,” writes Abbott. Highlights include Rita Levi Montalcini speaking about human rights and the reclusive Paul Dirac's lecture on the gravitational constant.