Maxwell wanted to convert the format to a general biophysical journal rather than an annual review in book form, a suggestion strongly resisted by Butler.

In more recent years the journal has increasingly supported interdisciplinary and integrative research through "Themed Issues", often linked to high level discussion meetings on related topics.

[3] Reviews, articles and papers have stimulated notable lines of research in a wide variety of fields, as well as occasionally provoking controversy and debate.

[5][6] The panspermia article gained widespread derisive press coverage,[7][8][9] and was described by Mark Carnall, a curator at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, as "pseudoscience and nonsense".

[10] The editorial of that issue authored by Noble commented that panspermia was a "highly controversial hypothesis with the majority of biologists dismissing it out of hand", and noted that the Origin of Life remained an unsolved problem, and that all conjectures on the topic at this time were speculative.