Best Selling Books by Matt Ridley

“Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability.” — The New Yorker The genome''s been mapped. But what does it mean? Matt Ridley’s Genome is the book that explains it all: what it is, how it works, and what it portends for the future Arguably the most significant scientific discovery of the new century, the mapping of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes that make up the human genome raises almost as many questions as it answers. Questions that will profoundly impact the way we think about disease, about longevity, and about free will. Questions that will affect the rest of your life. Genome offers extraordinary insight into the ramifications of this incredible breakthrough. By picking one newly discovered gene from each pair of chromosomes and telling its story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future medicine. From Huntington''s disease to cancer, from the applications of gene therapy to the horrors of eugenics, Ridley probes the scientific, philosophical, and moral issues arising as a result of the mapping of the genome. It will help you understand what this scientific milestone means for you, for your children, and for humankind.

“Mr. Ridley’s best and most important work to date…there is something profoundly democratic and egalitarian—even anti-elitist—in this bottom-up approach: Everyone can have a role in bringing about change.” —Wall Street Journal The New York Times bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world Human society evolves. Change in technology, language, morality, and society is incremental, inexorable, gradual, and spontaneous. It follows a narrative, going from one stage to the next, and it largely happens by trial and error—a version of natural selection. Much of the human world is the result of human action but not of human design: it emerges from the interactions of millions, not from the plans of a few. Drawing on fascinating evidence from science, economics, history, politics, and philosophy, Matt Ridley demolishes conventional assumptions that the great events and trends of our day are dictated by those on high. On the contrary, our most important achievements develop from the bottom up. The Industrial Revolution, cell phones, the rise of Asia, and the Internet were never planned; they happened. Languages emerged and evolved by a form of natural selection, as did common law. Torture, racism, slavery, and pedophilia—all once widely regarded as acceptable—are now seen as immoral despite the decline of religion in recent decades. In this wide-ranging, erudite book, Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution, rather than design, as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our technology, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future.

Building on his national bestseller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the subject. Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. Forget short-term symptoms like Donald Trump and Brexit, it is innovation that will shape the twenty-first century. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen alike. Matt Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens as a direct result of the human habit of exchange, rather than an orderly, top-down process developing according to a plan. Innovation is crucially different from invention, because it is the turning of inventions into things of practical and affordable use to people. It speeds up in some sectors and slows down in others. It is always a collective, collaborative phenomenon, involving trial and error, not a matter of lonely genius. It happens mainly in just a few parts of the world at any one time. It still cannot be modeled properly by economists, but it can easily be discouraged by politicians. Far from there being too much innovation, we may be on the brink of an innovation famine. Ridley derives these and other lessons from the lively stories of scores of innovations, how they started and why they succeeded or failed. Some of the innovation stories he tells are about steam engines, jet engines, search engines, airships, coffee, potatoes, vaping, vaccines, cuisine, antibiotics, mosquito nets, turbines, propellers, fertilizer, zero, computers, dogs, farming, fire, genetic engineering, gene editing, container shipping, railways, cars, safety rules, wheeled suitcases, mobile phones, corrugated iron, powered flight, chlorinated water, toilets, vacuum cleaners, shale gas, the telegraph, radio, social media, block chain, the sharing economy, artificial intelligence, fake bomb detectors, phantom games consoles, fraudulent blood tests, hyperloop tubes, herbicides, copyright, and even life itself.

Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature-versus-nurture debate in a thoughtful book about the roots of human behavior. Ridley recounts the hundred years'' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. With the decoding of the human genome, we now know that genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.

''Ridley is spot-on when it comes to the vital ingredients for success'' Sir James Dyson Building on his bestseller The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley chronicles the history of innovation, and how we need to change our thinking on the subject. Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. It is innovation that will shape the twenty-first century. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen alike. Matt Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens as a direct result of the human habit of exchange, rather than an orderly, top-down process developing according to a plan. Innovation is crucially different from invention, because it is the turning of inventions into things of practical and affordable use to people. It speeds up in some sectors and slows down in others. It is always a collective, collaborative phenomenon, involving trial and error, not a matter of lonely genius. It still cannot be modelled properly by economists, but it can easily be discouraged by politicians. Far from there being too much innovation, we may be on the brink of an innovation famine. Ridley derives these and other lessons from the lively stories of scores of innovations - from steam engines to search engines - how they started and why they succeeded or failed.

“A delightful and fascinating book filled with insight and wit, which will make you think twice and cheer up.” — Steven Pinker In a bold and provocative interpretation of economic history, Matt Ridley, the New York Times-bestselling author of Genome and The Red Queen, makes the case for an economics of hope, arguing that the benefits of commerce, technology, innovation, and change—what Ridley calls cultural evolution—will inevitably increase human prosperity. Fans of the works of Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel), Niall Ferguson (The Ascent of Money), and Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) will find much to ponder and enjoy in The Rational Optimist. For two hundred years the pessimists have dominated public discourse, insisting that things will soon be getting much worse. But in fact, life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people''s lives as never before. An astute, refreshing, and revelatory work that covers the entire sweep of human history—from the Stone Age to the Internet—The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.

Sex is as fascinating to scientists as it is to the rest of us. A vast pool of knowledge, therefore, has been gleaned from research into the nature of sex, from the contentious problem of why the wasteful reproductive process exists at all, to how individuals choose their mates and what traits they find attractive. This fascinating book explores those findings, and their implications for the sexual behaviour of our own species. It uses the Red Queen from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ – who has to run at full speed to stay where she is – as a metaphor for a whole range of sexual behaviours. The book was shortlisted for the 1994 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for Science Books. ‘Animals and plants evolved sex to fend off parasitic infection. Now look where it has got us. Men want BMWs, power and money in order to pair-bond with women who are blonde, youthful and narrow-waisted ... a brilliant examination of the scientific debates on the hows and whys of sex and evolution’ Independent.

Following his highly praised and bestselling book Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley has written a brilliant and profound book about the roots of human behavior. Nature via Nurture explores the complex and endlessly intriguing question of what makes us who we are. In February 2001 it was announced that the human genome contains not 100,000 genes, as originally postulated, but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will. Published fifty years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA, Nature via Nurture chronicles a revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years'' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling,up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience.

"Chan and Ridley write with an urgency...that inspires gripping depictions of what viruses are, how infectious-disease laboratories work and wonderfully lucid descriptions of bats. . . . They powerfully recount how dangerous pathogens can both leak from a lab and emerge in nature." (New York Times Book Review) Understanding how Covid-19 started is crucial for the future of humankind. Viral is the most incisive and authoritative book about the search for the source of the virus. A new virus descended on the human species in 2019 wreaking unprecedented havoc. Finding out where it came from and how it first jumped into people is an urgent priority, but early expectations that this would prove an easy question to answer have been dashed. Nearly two years into the pandemic, the crucial mystery of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is not only unresolved but has deepened. In this uniquely insightful book, a scientist and a writer join forces to try to get to the bottom of how a virus whose closest relations live in bats in subtropical southern China somehow managed to begin spreading among people more than 1,500 kilometres away in the city of Wuhan. They grapple with the baffling fact that the virus left none of the expected traces that such outbreaks usually create: no infected market animals or wildlife, no chains of early cases in travellers to the city, no smouldering epidemic in a rural area, no rapid adaptation of the virus to its new host—human beings. To try to solve this pressing mystery, Viral delves deep into the events of 2019 leading up to 2021, the details of what went on in animal markets and virology laboratories, the records and data hidden from sight within archived Chinese theses and websites, and the clues that can be coaxed from the very text of the virus’s own genetic code. The result is a gripping detective story that takes the reader deeper and deeper into a metaphorical cave of mystery. One by one the authors explore promising tunnels only to show that they are blind alleys, until, miles beneath the surface, they find themselves tantalisingly close to a shaft that leads to the light.

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that self-interest and mutual aid are not at all incompatible. In fact, he points out, our cooperative instincts may have evolved as part of mankind''s natural selfish behavior—by exchanging favors we can benefit ourselves as well as others.Brilliantly orchestrating the newest findings of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists, The Origins of Virtue re-examines the everyday assumptions upon which we base our actions towards others, whether in our roles as parents, siblings, or trade partners. With the wit and brilliance of The Red Queen, his acclaimed study of human and animal sexuality, Matt Ridley shows us how breakthroughs in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a new perspective on how and why we relate to each other.

Dr Ridley is one of a number of environmentalists who are seeking to counter the inaccurate and misleading opinions of ''mainstream environmentalism''. This volume brings together a selection of 30 of Dr Ridley''s ''Down to Earth'' columns which appeared in The Sunday Telegraph.

Francis Crick—the quiet genius who led a revolution in biology by discovering, quite literally, the secret of life—will be bracketed with Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein as one of the greatest scientists of all time. In his fascinating biography of the scientific pioneer who uncovered the genetic code—the digital cipher at the heart of heredity that distinguishes living from non-living things—acclaimed bestselling science writer Matt Ridley traces Crick''s life from middle-class mediocrity in the English Midlands through a lackluster education and six years designing magnetic mines for the Royal Navy to his leap into biology at the age of thirty-one and its astonishing consequences. In the process, Ridley sheds a brilliant light on the man who forever changed our world and how we understand it.

From the Enlightenment onwards, the West has had an enduring belief that through the evolution of institutions, innovations, and ideas, the human condition is improving. This process is supposedly accelerating as new technologies, individual freedoms, and the spread of global norms empower individuals and societies around the world. But is progress inevitable? Its critics argue that human civilization has become different, not better, over the last two and a half centuries. What is seen as a breakthrough or innovation in one period becomes a setback or limitation in another. In short, progress is an ideology not a fact; a way of thinking about the world as opposed to a description of reality. So is the cup half full or half empty? As part of the Munk Debates series, held in Toronto biannually, pioneering cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and bestselling author Matt Ridley squared off against noted philosopher Alain de Botton and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell, giving us an entertaining and thought-provoking face-off between four of the world''s most renowned thinkers.

Progress. It is one of the animating concepts of the modern era. From the Enlightenment onwards, the West has had an enduring belief that through the evolution of institutions, innovations, and ideas, the human condition is improving. This process is supposedly accelerating as new technologies, individual freedoms, and the spread of global norms empower individuals and societies around the world. But is progress inevitable? Its critics argue that human civilization has become different, not better, over the last two and a half centuries. What is seen as a breakthrough or innovation in one period becomes a setback or limitation in another. In short, progress is an ideology not a fact; a way of thinking about the world as opposed to a description of reality. In the seventeenth semi-annual Munk Debates, which was held in Toronto on November 6, 2015, pioneering cognitive scientist Steven Pinker and bestselling author Matt Ridley squared off against noted philosopher Alain de Botton and bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell to debate whether humankind’s best days lie ahead.

Almost every schoolchild learns that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. But did he? And if he hadn’t invented it, would we be still living in the dark? Acclaimed author Matt Ridley (The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything) explains that at least 20 other people can lay claim to this breakthrough moment. Ridley argues that the light bulb emerged from the combined technologies and accumulated knowledge of the day – it was bound to emerge sooner or later. Based on his 2018 Hayek Memorial Lecture, Ridley contends that innovation – from invention through to development and commercialisation – is the most important unsolved problem in all of human society. We rely on it – but we do not fully understand it, we cannot predict it and we cannot direct it. In How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Change the World? Ridley examines the nature of innovation – and how people often fear its consequences. He dispels the myth that automation destroys jobs – and demonstrates how innovation leads to economic growth. And he argues that intellectual property rights, originally intended to encourage innovation, are now being used by big business to defend their monopolies. Ridley concludes that innovation is a mysterious and under-appreciated process that we discuss too rarely, hamper too much and value too little.

If, as Matt Ridley suggests, science is simply the search for new forms of ignorance, then perhaps it follows that with science''s advances come new questions. Will human genetic engineering become commonplace? Will human cloning ever be safe? Are there many universes? How much will the climate change during the coming century? The Best American Science Writing 2002 gathers top writers and scientists covering the latest developments in the fastest-changing, farthest-reaching scientific fields, such as medicine, genetics, computer technology, evolutionary psychology, cutting-edge physics, and the environment. Among this year''s selections: In "The Made-to-Order Savior," Lisa Belkin spotlights two desperate families seeking an unprecedented cure by a medically and ethically unprecedented means -- creating a genetically matched child. Margaret Talbot''s "A Desire to Duplicate" reveals that the first human clone may very likely come from an entirely unexpected source, and sooner than we think. Michael Specter reports on the shock waves rippling through the field of neuroscience following the revolutionary discovery that adult brain cells might in fact regenerate ("Rethinking the Brain"). Christopher Dickey''s "I Love My Glow Bunny" recounts with sly humor a peculiar episode in which genetic engineering and artistic culture collide. Natalie Angier draws an insightful contrast between suicide terrorists and rescue workers who risk their lives, and finds that sympathy and altruism have a definite place in the evolution of human nature, David Berlinski''s "What Brings a World into Being?" ponders the idea of biology and physics as essentially digital technologies, exploring the mysteries encoded in the universe''s smallest units, be they cells or quanta. Nicholas Wade shows how one of the most controversial books of the year, The Skeptical Environmentalist, by former Greenpeace member and self-described leftist Bjorn Lomborg, debunks some of the most cherished tenets of the environmental movement, suggesting that things are perhaps not as bad as we''ve been led to believe. And as a counterpoint, Darcy Frey''s profile of George Divoky reveals a dedicated researcher whose love of birds and mystery leads to some sobering discoveries about global warming and forcefully reminds us of the unsung heroes of science: those who put in long hours, fill in small details, and take great trouble. In the end, the unanswered questions are what sustain scientific inquiry, open new frontiers of knowledge, and lead to new technologies and medical treatments. The Best American Science Writing 2002 is a series of exciting reports from science''s front lines, where what we don''t know is every bit as important as what we know.

La innovación es la actividad más importante de nuestra época: trae progresos espectaculares a nuestro nivel de vida, pero también, en ocasiones, cambios inquietantes a la sociedad. Matt Ridley entiende la innovación como un proceso fortuito que avanza de abajo arriba y es resultado directo de la costumbre humana del intercambio, y no como un proceso ordenado que se pone en marcha desde arriba de acuerdo con un plan establecido. Siempre es un fenómeno colectivo, colaborativo, que implica ensayo y error, y nunca responde a la creación de un genio solitario. El autor extrae estas y otras conclusiones a partir de la fascinante historia de numerosos avances que ilustran qué es la innovación y qué mecanismos la impulsan

AO CONTRÁRIO DO PESSIMISMO GENERALIZADO, UM ECONOMISTA PROVA QUE A VIDA VEM MELHORANDO O MUNDO O jornalista especializado em ciência Matt Ridley acredita que há motivos para ser otimista com relação aos seres humanos. A vida está melhorando, e a um ritmo acelerado. Disponibilidade de alimentos, renda e expectativa de vida estão em alta; doença, mortalidade infantil e violência estão em queda – em todo o mundo. Este livro cobre todo o movimento da história humana, desde a Idade da Pedra até a internet para mostrar que, graças à incessante capacidade humana para a inovação, o século XXI verá a prosperidade das sociedades e a biodiversidade natural aumentadas. "Nenhum outro livro argumentou com tanto brilho e fôlego histórico contra o pessimismo automático dominante." – Ian McEwan

Uma história inspiradora sobre o desenvolvimento da humanidade O que mantém o mundo sempre moderno é o modo de recriar e surgir com algo novo a todo momento. A inovação é o motivo pelo qual mais pessoas vivem hoje com uma boa qualidade de vida, em comparação ao passado. Inovação não é o mesmo que invenção. A inovação raramente procede de um único gênio e leva muito mais tempo. Assemelha-se à evolução darwiniana, um processo de reorganizar o mundo em formas que provavelmente não surgirão por acaso – e que são úteis... E a inovação é potencialmente infinita porque, mesmo que não se trate de nova criação ou invento, ela encontra maneiras de fazer as mesmas coisas mais rapidamente ou com menos energia. Ao longo do livro, Matt Ridley conta histórias fascinantes de desenvolvimento da tecnologia para que os leitores observem o percurso. É nele que está o pulo do gato, pois fornece pistas para as próximas inovações. Ridley traz uma linha de trajetórias, descobertas e inspirações de inventores como Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, irmãos Wright até Jeff Bezos, entre outros. Para ele, o fenômeno de invenção é coletivo, colaborativo e pode acontecer em várias partes do mundo simultaneamente.

生物醫學的里程碑、重大的科學發現 第一本詳實介紹人類基因組，既叫好又叫座的遺傳學科普書 全球銷售逾百萬冊 榮獲《中國時報》開卷十大好書、《紐約時報》編輯十大最佳選書 「以充滿創意的手法，把極端學術性的人類遺傳學知識寫成人人可讀的科普讀物……不用一張圖片，也能帶領讀者很愉快地走進人類遺傳學的殿堂。」 ——武光東教授 人類的基因組（genome）是由23對染色體所組成的完整基因組合，也可以說是人類的一部自傳。這套基因組採用四個英文字母（A,T,G,C；代表四類鹼基對）來組合，DNA（去氧核糖核酸）總計包含了三十億個這類字母。 三百多萬年以來，我們的基因組代代相傳，並經過編輯、刪除、突變與增添。 作者從人類的23對染色體裡各選出一個新發現的基因，述說其故事，並將人類與其遠祖的歷史，由生命誕生之初娓娓道來，鋪陳到未來醫學的啟蒙之際。 他羅列了我們與細菌共有的基因、使我們有別於黑猩猩的基因、讓我們罹患重疾的基因、可能影響我們的智力的基因、賦予我們語言文法能力的基因、指引我們的身體與頭腦發展的基因、讓我們具有記憶力的基因、促使我們展現先天與後天之神妙融合的基因、為達其自私目的而侵犯我們的基因、相互爭鬥的基因與記載人類遷徙歷史的基因……全書深入淺出，諧趣盎然，帶領讀者一窺人類遺傳之堂奧，自2000年出版以來，一直是遺傳學領域最受歡迎之科普讀物。

Progresul omenirii – o realitate bazată pe fapte concrete sau o iluzie care hrănește dintotdeauna cele mai aprinse utopii? Iată un subiect controversat, pe care patru gânditori străluciți ai prezentului l-au pus în perspectivă în cadrul Dezbaterilor Munk din noiembrie 2015. Seria întâlnirilor bianuale din Toronto, cu un renume internațional încă de la lansarea lor din 2008, a devenit astfel un context propice unui duel de idei alert și antrenant. STEVEN PINKER și MATT RIDLEY, experți recunoscuți în mai multe domenii ale cunoașterii și autori de bestselleruri, pledează în favoarea unui viitor luminos al speciei noastre, bazându-se pe date statistice. Cu o viziune sceptică, erudiții ALAIN DE BOTTON și MALCOLM GLADWELL aduc argumente de sens contrar, ancorându-și demonstrația pe terenul conceptelor filozofice și al realităților istorice. Confruntarea dintre cele două echipe este o veritabilă mostră de debate de cea mai înaltă ținută. Pasionantă, stimulativă, amuzantă prin jovialitatea și sarcasmul atent dozat al adversarilor, dezbaterea va face deliciul oricărui cititor căruia îi place să își dea de gândit. Este un fapt incontestabil că am devenit mai buni ca ființe umane decât pe vremea când aruncam fecioare în vulcani ori când tăiam mâinile celor care furau o varză. Steven Pinker Oamenii sunt mai bogați, mai în siguranță, mai educați, mai pașnici – dar izbânzile din trecut nu garantează câștiguri viitoare. Nu toată omenirea își duce traiul pe Wall Street. Malcolm Gladwell

U nás dobře známý autor Matt Ridley přinesl v této knize nový pohled na evoluční psychologii pohlavního výběru. Od svého prvního vydání v roce 1993 významně přispěla ke změně chápání mnoha aspektů evoluční teorie a stala se klasickým textem. Červená královna je poutavě napsaná encyklopedie nejnovějších vědeckých názorů na lidskou přirozenost. Pojmenována je podle Červené královny z Carrollovy Alenky, která zůstává na místě, ať utíká seberychleji - podobný efekt v evoluci vysvětluje Teorie červené královny, podle níž závody organismů vedou ke stabilní rovnováze. Kniha, která se stala klasikou již krátce po svém vydání, patří do knihovny každého přemýšlivého člověka. Vychází ve spolupráci s nakladaelstvím Argo.

Qui sommes-nous ? D''où venons-nous ? Où allons-nous ? Pour comprendre les véritables conséquences de la plus importante découverte scientifique du nouveau siècle, lisez Matt Ridley. Le génome humain contient sa propre autobiographie - l''histoire, écrite dans la langue des gènes, de toutes les vicissitudes et inventions qui ont marqué notre évolution. Certains gènes n''ont guère changé depuis la nuit des temps. Certains se sont développés quand nous étions de simples vers. D''autres quand nous étions des poissons. Certains existent sous leur forme actuelle en raison d''épidémies récentes. D''autres enfin permettent d''écrire l''histoire des migrations humaines... Le génome est comme un journal intime : il contient la trace écrite de chaque événement important. Une visite guidée en vingt-trois chapitres - un par paire de chromosomes - des plus beaux sites touristiques de notre génome. Nous avons une chance inouïe : nous sommes les premiers à pouvoir lire le livre de la vie. Et cela bouleverse déjà ce que nous savons de nos origines, de notre évolution, de notre nature et de notre esprit. Une révolution s''annonce : l''anthropologie, la psychologie, la médecine, la paléontologie et pratiquement toutes les autres disciplines ne seront plus jamais les mêmes.