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Mental illness is the greatest research challenge
Matt Ridley
Infectious and heart disease are in retreat; cancer won’t go away My Times column on the Chan-Zuckerberg initiative in basic medical science: Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, and his wife Priscilla Chan, a paediatrician, have announced their intention to spend $3 billion over ten years on medical research. Having met them last year, […]
Junk science on statins, snus and vaping
Matt Ridley
Evidence, not authority, is what should determine policy My Times column on statins, snus and vaping: One of the most salutary examples of people in authority getting risks wrong is a paper written in 1955 by the first head of the environmental cancer section of the US National Cancer Institute, Wilhelm Hueper. The title was […]
Matt Ridley
Introduced species are the biggest cause of extinction – but not all bad My essay on invasive species in the Wall Street Journal: In July, the New Zealand government announced its intention to eradicate all rats, stoats and possums from the entire country by 2050 to save native birds such as the kiwi. It’s an […]
An ice-free Arctic Ocean has happened before
Matt Ridley
When the Arctic loses all its sea ice one summer, will it matter? My Times column on how the Arctic sea ice has melted in late summer before, between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago: The sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is approaching its annual nadir. By early September each year about two thirds […]
Whatever happened to Adam Smith?
Matt Ridley
Economic libertarianism is no longer on offer to American voters My Times column on economic libertarianism: Last week both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set out their economic policies in set-piece speeches. Mr Trump’s, delivered in Detroit, so far as one could tell from the fractured syntax and the digressions into invective, involves a trade […]
Getting the rich to pay for conservation
Matt Ridley
Hunting in Africa and Durham bring spectacular benefits for wildlife My Spectator article on the similarity between trophy hunting in Africa and grouse shooting in Durham. Both have huge benefits for non-target species of wildlife. The vast Bubye Valley Conservancy in southern Zimbabwe is slightly larger than County Durham, as well as much hotter […]
Matt Ridley
From coffee and printing to GMOs and shale gas, we’re too anti-new My Times column on the history of opposition to innovation: The prime minister is to announce today that she would like to redirect some of the future profits of shale gas production to households, rather than councils. This is eminently sensible. It […]
Decarbonisation yes, but not at any price
Matt Ridley
Hinkley Point C and British renewables are too expensive This is my Times column on why we are paying too much to decarbonise via both nuclear and renewables, but I have expanded various points to give detailed quotes from sources to verify my arguments. [The expansions are in square brackets and italics.] If Hinkley Point […]
There are no experts on the future
Matt Ridley
The track record of forecasters, except through extrapolation, is poor My Times column on why experts get the future as wrong, or more so, than non-experts: Michael Gove was mocked during the referendum campaign for saying that “I think people in this country have had enough of experts.” Critics asked pointedly if he dismissed the […]
Industrial strategy can be regressive
Matt Ridley
Inequality is often worsened by government intervention My Times column on industrial strategy: In her first speech on the steps of 10 Downing Street Theresa May said that she intends to listen to those who “just about manage”, not to the wealthy and mighty. “When it comes to opportunity, we won’t entrench the advantages of the fortunate […]
