This year, the Society for Endocrinology celebrates the 60th anniversary of its summer 1946 formation. The Journal of Endocrinology had in fact started a few years earlier in 1939 and this formed the nucleus for the new Society. Readers, who wish to know more about the history of the Journal and the Society, are referred to the interesting and entertaining historical note published by Lord Zuckerman (1984). At that time, endocrinology was becoming an exciting and firmly established discipline, and as Zuckerman put it, ’almost any experiment seemed to produce fascinating results’, although it could take up to two years to get a paper into print.
Endocrinology has developed tremendously in the last 60 years, and with the discovery of new hormones and the fascinating complexity of control mechanisms, has become more exciting than ever. We hope that the founders of the Society, 60 years ago, would have been excited to read the contents of Journal of Endocrinology this year and to realise the extent and depth of the advances that have been made.
In this issue of the Journal, we are delighted to carry a series of Commentary articles that provide a perspective on what developments may come to pass over the next 60 years. We hope that you will find the speculations of the authors, entertaining and stimulating. We can confidently expect the discovery of still more new hormones, and potentially new endocrine organs – or at least, new endocrine functions being attributed to well-known tissues. The scope of endocrinology is likely to become broader, and we hope that the readers will enjoy with us, the anticipation of how the endocrine world might look in the contents of this Journal in 2066. We wish you enjoyable reading and productive and seminal research!
Reference
Zuckerman S 1984 The launching of the Journal of Endocrinology and the founding of the Society for Endocrinology. Journal of Endocrinology 100 1–6.
