A Short Post for John Maddox

Sir John Maddox, the editor emeritus of the Nature magazine, died at 83 in  Abergavenny, Wales, on April 13, 2009. He was the driving and often relentless force behind, in turning the British journal into an internationally influential showcase for the most recent developments in scientific research. A fierce proponent of reason, rationalism, and science-based thinking, he ran the best publication of its kind in the world and gave those in his orbit permission to be great.[1] He had once said:

My guess is that if the question of human extinction is ever posed clearly, people will say that it's all very well to say we've been a part of nature up to now, but at that turning point in the human race's history, it is surely essential that we do something about it; that we fix the genome, to get rid of the disease that's causing the instability, if necessary we clone people known to be free from the risk, because that's the only way in which we can keep the human race alive. A still, small voice may at that stage ask, but what right does the human race have to claim precedence for itself. To which my guess is the full-throated answer would be, sorry, the human race has taken a decision, and that decision is to survive. And, if you like, the hell with the rest of the ecosystem.

He will be missed.

[1] John Brockman

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