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About the Author

John Maddox was born in Penllergaer, Wales on November 27, 1925. He received a degree in chemistry from Christ Church, Oxford and a degree in physics from King's College, London. He taught theoretical physics at the University of Manchester from 1949 to 1955 before leaving to become the science show more correspondent for The Manchester Guardian. In 1964, he worked on a project for the Nuffield Foundation intended to put more up-to-date teaching materials in the hands of science teachers. In 1966, he became the editor of the British journal Nature. He left Nature in 1973, but returned in 1980. He was the editor of Nature for a total of 22 years. He also wrote books during his lifetime including The Doomsday Syndrome (1972); Beyond the Energy Crisis: A Global Perspective (1975); and What Remains to Be Discovered?: Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, the Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race (1998). He died due to pneumonia associated with a chest infection on April 12, 2009 at the age of 83. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by John Maddox

Associated Works

The Politics of Pure Science (1969) — Introduction, some editions — 56 copies
The New Scientist, 18 July 1957 (1957) — Contributor — 1 copy

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In many ways it's a highly outdated book (CERN, Human Gemome Project), and in whole it seems to be badly edited, discursive and its's mainly talking about the history of the given field of science. Clearly not a must. The hungarian translation is slobby.
 
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TheCrow2 | 1 other review | Jan 21, 2014 |
A year ago, a book entitled "The End of Science" by John Horgan claimed that there was nothing of significance left for science to uncover. It was not a "Hal's Pick" because I thought it was seriously mistaken, echoing the smug predictions of a century ago, just before the revolutions of quantum mechanics and relativity blew the lid off of classical science. Now John Maddox, for twenty three years the editor of Nature, has published a refutation of Horgan's thesis. Maddox organizes his thoughts into three categories: Matter, Life, and Our World. In each of ten chapters, he describes what he sees to be the outstanding problems and the likely means by which they might be attacked. I particularly enjoyed the clarity of his descriptions of the current status of the science involved - not surprising, considering his responsibilities at Nature. The future will likely prove his predictions wrong, but I don't think it will disprove his larger point, that science has an promising future. This should be an inspirational book for students of science.… (more)
 
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hcubic | 1 other review | Jan 27, 2013 |
 
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laplantelibrary | Jul 10, 2022 |

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Works
6
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½ 3.3
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ISBNs
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