• • John Maddox 1925-2009

    In memory of a transformative editor of Nature.

    14 April 2009

  • Nature - the Maddox years

    When John Maddox took over the reins of Nature's editorship in 1966, the journal was in urgent need of reform, recalls Walter Gratzer.

  • Podcast: Working with Maddox

    Nature senior editor Henry Gee remembers the man, his methods, and his Marlboros.

    17 April 2009

  • Maddox by his successor

    It was early 1980 and the news was astonishing. John Maddox was coming back to be, for the second time, the editor of Nature.

    17 April 2009

  • A publisher's perspective

    During the latter part of his first period as the editor of Nature (1966-73), John Maddox combined his job with responsibilities as managing director of Macmillan Journals - a division of what became Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

    17 April 2009

  • John Maddox (1925-2009)

    John Maddox, who died on 12 April, was editor of Nature during 1966-73 and 1980-95. He transformed the journal from a collegially amateurish publication into one that was challenging and professional in its assessment of science and in its journalistic reportage.

    17 April 2009

Articles by JM

• • We wuz robbed

    The scandal of the 1966 World Cup.

    13 August 1966

  • A book for burning?

    Maddox's now-famous editorial on the ideas of Rupert Sheldrake.

    24 September 1981

  • A new nuclear holocaust

    In a review, Maddox lambasted Jonathan Schell, author of "The Fate of the Earth", for a lack of political seriousness.

    10 June 1982

  • Is biology now part of physics?

    Not yet, Maddox concluded - but quantitative steps to make it so had much to recommend them.

    24 November 1983

  • A meeting with Mrs Gandhi

    After her death, Maddox recalled an interview with the Indian prime minister.

    8 November 1984

  • The heresy of immanence

    On matters of science and religion, Maddox found that a book by Bishop Hugh Montefiore required "a concession to irrationality that most will find impossible to make".

    23 May 1985

  • New ways with interatomic forces

    The need to be able to calculate material properties ab initio was a heartfelt theme.

    28 August 1986

  • Should technology be scorned?

    Maddox wondered whether engineers were their own worst enemies.

    23 April 1987

  • Crystals from first principles

    Calculating the properties of materials ab initio would rectify "one of the continuing scandals in the physical sciences".

    15 September 1988

  • Waves caused by extreme dilution

    The last words on the Benveniste affair.

    27 October 1988

  • Where next is science heading?

    "There is in present circumstances a danger that science may no longer have room for scholarly people who do not care for the rat-race," wrote Maddox in 1989. "That would be disastrous."

    8 June 1989

  • Should camp-followers be policemen?

    What journals can and can't do to limit fraud.

    8 November 1990

  • Adventures with a vulnerable knee

    The wonders of surgery were grist to Maddox's mill.

    7 January 1993

  • No news on Sunday

    The end of Nature's campaign against denial of the HIV AIDS link at the London Sunday Times.

    7 July 1994

  • Valediction from an old hand

    John Maddox steps down as editor of Nature from this issue, to be replaced by Dr Philip Campbell.

    7 December 1995