WELCOME TO MATT RIDLEY'S BLOG

The Origins of Virtue argues that the human mind has evolved a special instinct for social exchange that enables us to reap the benefits of co-operation, ostracise those who break the social contract and avoid the trap of being ‘rational fools’. It traces the evolution of society first among genes, then among cells, then in […]

In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass”, Alice meets the Red Queen who runs everywhere but stays in the same place. This book champions a Red Queen theory for the evolution of sexual reproduction: that it was invented to keep changing the genetic locks so as to remain one step ahead of constantly mutating parasites. […]