According to the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, "man" meant "A human being (irrespective of sex or age)" until the 20th century. So Nature's 1869 mission statement said exactly what they now want to say; it's the language's fault.

Unfortunately I may not reproduce a quote of the "Etymology" section of their entry on "man". You'll have to look it up yourself.

See also their entries on 'were' (or 'wer', male human), 'wife' (or 'wif', female human), 'woman' (female human) and 'wapman'(or 'wepman', male human).

I'm sure that the good wepmen and wifmen at Nature were understood.