Sir John Royden Maddox, FRS[1] (27 November 1925 – 12 April 2009)[2][3] was a Welsh theoretical chemist, physicist, and science writer.

From there, aged 15, he won a state scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, where he read chemistry, and King's College London, where he studied physics.

It's unnecessary to introduce magic into the explanation of physical and biological phenomena when in fact there is every likelihood that the continuation of research as it is now practised will indeed fill all the gaps that Sheldrake draws attention to.

[15] In the late 1980s, as evidence for the Big Bang origin of the Universe accumulated, Maddox, who favoured the Steady State theory, penned an editorial denouncing the theory as "philosophically unacceptable" (because he saw it giving a foothold to creationists) and "over-simplistic" and he predicted its demise within a decade (when results from the Hubble Space Telescope would become available).

His nomination read:[1] Sir John Maddox is known throughout the world as an outstanding editor and contributor to Nature.

His deep understanding of all branches of science is reflected in the lucid expositions of scientific research and discovery which appeared almost weekly in Nature.

Under his leadership, Nature grew to become unique among the world's leading scientific publications, covering all fields and circulating internationally.

In 1994 the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP) presented Maddox the Public Education in Science Award.