As stated in the editorial note of the first issue of HoST, released in the summer of 2007, the journal was born out of a joint effort of a group of Portuguese scholars sharing the goal of strengthening History of Science and Technology in Portugal. It is only fair to say, however, that the driving force behind the initiative of launching HoST was its first chief editor, Tiago Saraiva, to whom the journal owes a great deal in most respects.

For professional and personal reasons, Tiago Saraiva could no longer serve as HoST chief editor, and I was assigned the difficult task of replacing him and meeting the high standards he has imprinted on the journal. Marta Macedo, in turn, has replaced me as book review editor, and I am most pleased to be able to count on her efficient collaboration. The changeover, however, does not alter the basic principles underlying the creation of HoST, which will continue to be a peer-reviewed journal open to both national and international contributions. This remains our priority because its promoters deem highly important to foster an open dialogue between local historians of science and technology and the international community.

Despite the economic crisis and the drastic reduction or even total absence of funds impending on Portuguese research centres – in this case on CIUHCT and CIDEHUS, the centres which together with ICS have sustained HoST’s life and activities -- the editorial committee and myself are, nevertheless, deeply committed to its survival and wish to evade the usual fate of so many Portuguese journals, which fade away following the publication of a few issues. Our firm intention is to publish two HoST issues per year, spring and autumn respectively, one being thematic and, whenever possible, associated with the organization of a thematic HoST Workshop.

2012 HoST Spring issue gathers together the contributions derived from the session ‘Moved’ Natural Objects – ‘Spaces in Between’, which addressed the circulation of natural objects, in spaces between the place of collection and their destination. This session was organized in the context of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science, held in Barcelona in November 2010, by Marianne Klemun, who kindly agreed to arrange with the participants in her session to have their articles published in HoST and to be guest editor of this thematic issue.

In the preparation for the 2012 HoST Spring issue, I also had the pleasure of relying on the invaluable collaboration of Sue Turner as language editor, whose work clearly transcended this task. I am personally indebted to her, in as much as she took into consideration the journal’s difficult financial situation in charging a fee for her most competent work.

Finally, a word of gratitude goes to all authors for their interesting contributions and work on such a tight schedule, as well as to the referees who kindly agreed to review the articles, in this way contributing decisively to raise the quality of this issue.

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* CIUHCT, Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon