When, in the early 1770s, Joseph Priestley conducted his bell jar experiments with mice and mint plants, could he have imagined that these experiments would be repeated over 200 years later with a human subject? Well, they have been! ‘A paradigm of fragile Earth in Priestley’s bell jar‘ is among the first articles to be published in Extreme Physiology & Medicine.

Exploring how the body functions at the limits of survival, and then applying this research to enhance knowledge of pathophysiology in the critically ill, is a core mission of the new open access journal. It will focus on integrative human physiology under conditions of physiological stress, be it environmental, exertional or clinical.

Hugh Montgomery and Mike Grocott, Editors-in-Chief of Extreme Physiology & Medicine, are no strangers to extreme environments, having both participated in the 2007 Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition. Mount Everest is itself the subject of another launch article, ‘Environmental conditions at the South Col of Mount Everest and their impact on hypoxia and hypothermia experienced by mountaineers‘.

To find out more about our vision for this exciting new journal, please read the launch editorial and peruse the journal website. We aim to captivate a broad audience spanning a range of interests, from the deep sea to outer space. To stay up to date with what the journal is pubishing please register for new content alerts – all published content can be accessed for free!