John Maddox was born on November 27, 1925 in Penllergaer, Swansea, Swansea County, Wales, UK. He was married to Lois Barton, Nancy Fanning and Brenda Maddox. He died on April 12, 2009 in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK.
Longtime editor of the British science journal "Nature".
His father was a furnace-stoker in an aluminium factory.
He won a scholarship to Oxford, where he took a degree in chemistry. He also earned a physics degree at King's College, London, and taught theoretical physics at the University of Manchester from 1949 to 1955.
He left teaching to become the science correspondent for the Manchester Guardian (now The Guardian).
Upon his retirement from "Nature" in 1995, he was knighted. In 2000, he was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Society.