Science journal Nature has completed the digitisation of its entire archive (http://www.nature.com/nature/archive/index.html) by making available material from 1869's volume 1, issue 1 to 1949 as the final step in its five-year online deployment plan.

According to the press release, goodies now available from the publication's first 80 years - encompassing more than 4,000 issues and 180,000 articles - include: first observation of X-rays (Wilhelm Röntgen, 1896); the discovery of the electron ( J.J. Thomson, 1897); the first fossil evidence that humans originated in Africa (Raymond Dart, 1925); and the discovery of the neutron (James Chadwick, 1932).

To celebrate the topping out of the archive, Nature is offering web feature The History of the Journal Nature (http://www.nature.com/nature/history/index.html), featuring "timelines, video interviews, and profiles of editors".

For a limited period, it's also handing out free selected historical highlights (http://www.nature.com/nature/history/century.html), although you'll normally have to cough up for full-fat material. For example, a one-off purchase of 1953's Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid by Watson and Crick costs $30. ®

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