Who nurtured Nature?

Abstract

It was not long after I joined Nature as Biology Editor in 1974 that I was invited — or rather summoned — to meet Max Perutz at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He was Chairman of a luminous board that included the likes of Francis Crick, John Kendrew and Fred Sanger, all Nobel laureates. After the briefest of pleasantries, Perutz came straight to the point. Why, he asked, had Nature started to peer review papers from the laboratory when previously they were published without peer review? Indeed, he continued, as all papers sent to Nature are checked by members of the board, peer review is unnecessary.