Matt Ridley

In his new book acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley looks to the peculiar mating rituals of birds to better understand the rich origins and ongoing significance of Darwin s sexual selection theory

'If there is one dominant myth about the world, one huge mistake we all make ...it is that we all go around assuming the world is much more of a planned place than it is.' From the industrial revolution and the rise of China, to urbanisation and the birth of bitcoin, 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 ground up. In this wide-ranging and erudite book, Matt Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future. As compelling as it is controversial, as authoritative as it is ambitious, Ridley's deeply thought-provoking book will change the way we think about the world and how it works.

Los 23 cap#tulos de autobiograf#a de nuestra especie. El genoma humano, todo el conjunto de genes alojados en 23 pares de cromosomas, constituye nada menos que una autobiograf#a de nuestra especie. Escrito con mil millones de palabras de tres letras que utilizan el alfabeto de cuatro letras del ADN, el genoma ha sido corregido, abreviado, modificado y aumentado a medida que se ha transmitido de generaci#n en generaci#n a lo largo de m#s de tres mil millones de a#os.

Uma história inspiradora sobre o desenvolvimento da humanidadeO 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 pessoa

Cincuenta años después del descubrimiento del ADN, este libro es la crónica de una revolución en nuestros conocimientos sobre los genes. Ridley reescribe los cien años de enfrentamientos entre los partidarios de la naturaleza o la herencia y los defensores del entorno para explicar como una criatura tan paradojica como el ser humano puede tener una voluntad libre y a la vez estar influido por el instinto y la cultura. ? *Promocion valida hasta fin de existencias

¿Somos el resultado del ambiente en el que nos desarrollamos? ¿O somos el resutlado de lo que viene escrito en nuestros genes? En los últimos cien años estas preguntas han dado lugar a un interesantísimo debate que ha saltado fuera del ambito de la ciencia y se ha incorporado a la vida cotidiana. Leyendo este ameno libro, entenderemos muchos de los conceptos que se manejan actualmente sobre este tema, a la vez que nos divertiremos con las discusiones y controversias que se han generado, y, si aun no lo eramos, nos convertiremos en verdaderos aficionados a la ciencia.

Acclaimed author Matt Ridleys thrilling follow-up to his bestseller Genome. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour. What makes us who we are? In February 2001 it was announced that the genome contains not 100,000 genes as originally expected 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. 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 new 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. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

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.

A terrific book, witty and lucid, and brimming with provocative conjectures. (Wall Street Journal) from the author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller GenomeBrilliantly written, The Red Queen compels us to rethink everything from the persistence of sexism to the endurance of romantic love.Referring to Lewis Carrolls Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanitys best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and cultureincluding why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband. The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved.

If there is one dominant myth about the world, one huge mistake we all make it is that we all go around assuming the world is much more of a planned place than it is. From the industrial revolution and the rise of China, to urbanisation and the birth of bitcoin, 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 ground up. In this wide-ranging and erudite book, Matt Ridley brilliantly makes the case for evolution as the force that has shaped much of our culture, our minds, and that even now is shaping our future. As compelling as it is controversial, as authoritative as it is ambitious, Ridleys deeply thought-provoking book will change the way we think about the world and how it works.

Why are people nice to each other? What are the reasons for altrusim? Matt Ridley explains how the human mind has evolved a special instinct for social exchange, offering a lucid and persuasive argument about the paradox of human benevolence.

Mr. Ridleys best and most important work to datethere is something profoundly democratic and egalitarianeven anti-elitistin this bottom-up approach: Everyone can have a role in bringing about change. Wall Street JournalThe 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 worldHuman 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 errora 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 pedophiliaall once widely regarded as acceptableare 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.This ambitious history of ideas uncovers the evolutionary story behind human society:Spontaneous Order: A groundbreaking argument that the human world is the result of human action, but not of human designa concept that changes how we see everything. The Evolution of Morality: A fascinating look at how our ideas of right and wrong were not handed down from on high but emerged from social interaction, just like language and common law. Cultural Evolution: A wide-ranging exploration drawing on science, economics, and philosophy to show how society changes incrementally and inexorably from the ground up. Bottom-Up Technology: The surprising history of our most important achievements, from the Industrial Revolution to the Internet, revealing how they were never plannedthey just happened.

"[An] intriguing philosophical journey into a critical issue within evolutionary theory that for too long has remained unresolved."Wall Street JournalMatt Ridley is one of our finest science writers. This book is a treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike. Richard Dawkins, author of The Genetic Book of The Dead and The God DelusionThe New York Times bestselling author of Genome and The Evolution of Everything revisits Darwins revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridleys investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an arduous and even deadly ritual called a lek. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. When achieved, consummation with a female takes seconds. So why the months of practice and preparation that is elaborate, extravagant, exhausting and elegant?The full answer remains a mystery. Evolutionary biologists can explain why males are generally the eager sellers, females the discriminating buyers. But they struggle to explain why, in some species, this extravagance goes beyond the mere gaudy, taking on bizarre shapes, postures, and behavior. And further, why these bird displays seem beautiful to us humans, a species with seemingly no skin in the game.Using an early morning lek" as his starting point, Ridley explores the scientific research into the evolution of bright colors, exotic ornaments, and elaborate displays in birds around the world. Charles Darwin thought the purpose of such displays was to "charm" females. Though Darwins theory was initially dismissed and buried for decades, recent scientific research has proven him newly rightthere is a powerful evolutionary force quite distinct from natural selection: mate choice. In Birds, Sex and Beauty, Ridley reopens the history of Darwins vexed theory, laying bare a century of disagreement about an idea so powerful, so weird, and so wonderful, we may have yet to fully understand its implications.

In his new book, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley looks to the peculiar mating rituals of birds to better understand the rich origins and ongoing significance of Darwins sexual selection theory.FASCINATING The TimesMatt Ridley is one of our finest science writers A treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike Richard DawkinsAnimals rarely treat sex as a simple or mutually beneficial transaction. Choosing a mate is often a transcendent event to be approached with reverence, suspicion, angst and quite a bit of violence. For Matt Ridley, nowhere is this more acute than in birds.From a freezing hide on the Pennine moors at dawn, Ridley closely studies the rare Black Grouse. He is there for the lek an elaborate courtship ritual of squabbling and strutting males. They dance and sing for hours each day to attract a mate over several months. With most males leaving exhausted and unsuccessful, Ridley looks at how females make their choice to cast fresh light on how such rituals have evolved and why.His pursuit follows five generations of biologists from Darwin and Wallace to the present day, uncovering how they have grappled with the implications of sexual selection as an eccentric, gonzo form of evolution. While most Victorian scientists found it impossible to believe female birds could select mates, Darwin was obsessed with the idea of sexual as well as natural selection.Drawing on his own lifelong passion, Ridley eavesdrops on the elaborate displays of bird species around the world, from the complex art installations made by Bowerbirds in Australia to the bubbling calls of Curlews in the UKs declining moorlands. In a wonderful blend of nature writing and elegant exploration of recent evolutionary theory, Birds, Sex and Beauty shows not only how mate choice has shaped the natural world, including humans, but how the song and plumage of birds can be thrillingly, breathtakingly beautiful.Clear and entertaining Ridley explains all this history with lucidity and wit New StatesmanMost of this fascinating and accessible book is about birds Ridley, very clearly, loves birds and the enthusiasm is infectious The TimesThis is a fascinating story told with wit, scholarship and the passion of a true conversationist. Lord Ridley writes in the best tradition of great British naturalists Country LifeBirds, Sex & Beauty is a good read. It is a compelling history of sexual selection, rather than a synthesis that moves the field forwards Nature