One of Maddox's most recent Discover essays, "The James Watson Affair", examines comments made by James Watson in an article in London's Sunday Times which led to Watson's suspension at the laboratory where he worked and his eventual retirement, and is skeptical of critics who found Watson's comment about black employees "not that big a deal" yet charged him with racism for his proposition on black African intelligence; in conclusion, Maddox derides the views held by several critics, stating that in comparison to Watson's statements, "the most ignorant and hurtful idea of all, of course, is that the entire topic of race and genes and intelligence is off-limits to all right-thinking, compassionate people, just on principle", which pejoratively assumes "that some races are innately and immutably much less intelligent than others".
Maddox's recent Discover essay, "The James Watson Affair", examines the controversy surrounding Watson's comments in a London Times article that led to his suspension and retirement, and criticizes critics who accused him of racism despite downplaying the issue; Maddox dismisses these views as misguided, arguing that the most hurtful idea is that certain topics are off-limits due to principle, rather than addressing the actual issue of racial differences in intelligence.