One year has passed since Nature Geoscience presented its first issue to the public, yet for us the excitement of seeing each monthly issue composed in print and online has not worn off. We are particularly pleased to note the public's interest in the geosciences: even the James Bond villain now deals in water, not nuclear weapons, and our articles have been reported in outlets ranging from the Metro (a free London newspaper) to the New York Times.

We have learned a lot about planet Earth and other planetary bodies over the past year. For that, we would particularly like to thank all our authors and referees — their contributions to the journal are highly valued.

To celebrate the first complete annual cycle of Nature Geoscience issues, we are pleased to present free online access to our favourite pieces, assembled entirely subjectively (http://www.nature.com/ngeo/focus/anniversary/index.html). This compilation is intended to give an idea of the spread of topics and formats we publish; more can, of course, be found in the full issues.

We look forward to receiving and publishing further interesting papers, opinionated commentaries, learned overviews and last, but not least, adventurous backstories. We hope you too look forward to reading more about the geosciences in 2009 and beyond.