Since its launch in 1869, Nature has seen its mission as two-fold: facilitating the prompt communication of the most important scientific developments to the relevant research communities, while at the same time fostering a greater appreciation of these great works of science amongst the wider public. Although the publishing landscape for scientific research is currently undergoing a period of rapid change, these core principles remain largely unchanged. In this talk, I will endeavour to explain how Nature editors -- in particular those based at Nature Physics apply these principles in practice, and so determine which few of the many excellent research submissions that we receive make it through to publication.