Recently sighted: Britannica.com still makes freely available my "Vintage Britannica" series (though under a different name).

"When California Was an Island," the first of the series. source: Britannica.com

My personal favorite? I believe it's "Unveiling the Mysteries of the Nile," which reveals the changing geographical ideas about the sources of that river, or perhaps "Shocking Developments," about electricity.

In effect, the series granted a compressed view of the growth (or at least, change) of knowledge, like a time-lapse film of germinating seeds growing and putting forth blossoms in a matter of seconds. While it lasted, the series meant that I'd spend happy hours buried in the Britannica archives looking for oddities and getting surprisingly dirty. Judging by longevity at least, it was one of the most successful projects of mine from the Britannica.com years.

It's a bittersweet note for me that one of the fourteen articles on Britannica's Evolving Knowledge page — "The Allure of the Red Planet," on Britannica's coverage of the planet Mars — was produced by my late colleague Paul Morledge. Before his sudden and untimely passing a year ago at age 34, Paul had been a Britannica.com science editor and a valued friend to many of us. I'm sure Paul would join me in saying that we hope you might enjoy these pieces, echoes from an exciting time in our professional lives.

first published May 4, 2004