Matt Ridley
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Explore Blagdon
  • Speaking
  • How Innovation Works
    • UK
    • US
    • CA
  • Rational Optimist
  • Books
  • Parliament
  • Contact Me
  • Newsletter
  • Home
  • Biography
  • Blog
  • Videos
  • Explore Blagdon
  • Speaking
  • How Innovation Works
    • UK
    • US
    • CA
  • Rational Optimist
  • Books
  • Parliament
  • Contact Me
  • Newsletter
Blog Archive

Archive

  • 2022

    • June (1)
    • May (1)
    • March (5)
    • February (4)
    • January (3)
  • 2021

    • December (4)
    • November (4)
    • October (3)
    • September (1)
    • August (4)
    • July (6)
    • June (3)
    • May (1)
    • April (2)
    • March (4)
    • February (3)
    • January (2)
  • 2020

    • December (5)
    • November (4)
    • October (4)
    • September (3)
    • July (4)
    • June (6)
    • May (12)
    • April (7)
    • March (10)
    • February (6)
    • January (5)
  • 2019

    • December (4)
    • November (1)
    • October (1)
    • June (1)
    • May (2)
    • April (1)
    • March (2)
    • January (1)
  • 2018

    • December (1)
    • November (1)
    • October (1)
    • August (1)
    • July (2)
    • June (1)
    • May (1)
    • April (4)
    • March (3)
    • February (6)
    • January (4)
  • 2017

    • December (4)
    • November (5)
    • October (5)
    • September (5)
    • August (3)
    • July (5)
    • June (4)
    • May (8)
    • April (4)
    • March (4)
    • February (5)
    • January (4)
  • 2016

    • December (3)
    • November (5)
    • October (8)
    • September (3)
    • August (5)
    • July (6)
    • June (3)
    • May (5)
    • April (8)
    • March (3)
    • February (7)
    • January (3)
  • 2015

    • December (5)
    • November (5)
    • October (7)
    • September (3)
    • August (4)
    • July (5)
    • June (7)
    • May (7)
    • April (7)
    • March (5)
    • February (4)
    • January (7)
  • 2014

    • December (4)
    • November (4)
    • October (5)
    • September (5)
    • August (6)
    • July (6)
    • June (3)
    • May (7)
    • April (7)
    • March (5)
    • February (3)
    • January (5)
  • 2013

    • December (6)
    • November (5)
    • October (7)
    • September (6)
    • August (3)
    • July (7)
    • June (6)
    • May (4)
    • April (4)
    • March (6)
    • February (4)
    • January (6)
  • 2012

    • December (8)
    • November (7)
    • October (5)
    • September (6)
    • August (5)
    • July (6)
    • June (4)
    • May (6)
    • April (4)
    • March (9)
    • February (6)
    • January (8)
  • 2011

    • December (8)
    • November (9)
    • October (18)
    • September (7)
    • August (9)
    • July (13)
    • June (14)
    • May (16)
    • April (17)
    • March (14)
    • February (9)
    • January (16)
  • 2010

    • December (15)
    • November (16)
    • October (16)
    • September (13)
    • August (6)
    • July (17)
    • June (11)
    • May (20)
    • April (25)
    • March (6)

Tags

  • All
  • rational-optimist (609)
  • wall-street-journal (59)
  • the-times (246)
  • Rational Opimist (5)
  • spectator (30)
  • telegraph (30)
  • prospect (1)
  • lecture (1)
  • general (36)
  • human-genome (1)
  • radio (1)
  • financial post (1)
  • the-times (52)
  • Spectator (6)
  • wall-street-journal (62)
  • Australian (1)
  • spiked! (1)
  • Telegraph (1)
  • evolution (2)
  • genetics (1)
  • technology (1)
  • the times (1)
  • shale-gas (1)
  • climate (1)
  • meteorite (1)
  • ice age (1)
  • confirmation bias (1)
  • general (3)
  • the times (1)
  • climate (2)
  • poverty reduction (1)
  • gmos (7)
  • golden rice (1)
  • quillette (1)
  • the critic (1)
  • fracking (2)
  • shale gas (1)
  • extinction rebellion (1)
  • eu (1)
  • regulation (1)
  • innovation (10)
  • the spectator (2)
  • economics (2)
  • environment (12)
  • inequality (1)
  • Reaction (1)
  • Climate (1)
  • BBC (1)
  • The Times (1)
  • Brexit (1)
  • EU (1)
  • Free Trade (1)
  • brexit (6)
  • house-of-lords (2)
  • iea (1)
  • podcast (2)
  • kirkus (1)
  • how-innovation-works (17)
  • book-reviews (3)
  • reddit (1)
  • the-spectator (4)
  • biology (19)
  • coronavirus (62)
  • free-market-conservatives (1)
  • boris-johnson (1)
  • the-critic (3)
  • globalvision (1)
  • energy (12)
  • reaction (1)
  • appearances (5)
  • yaron-brook (1)
  • corona (2)
  • the-remnant (1)
  • political-orphanage (1)
  • blazetv (1)
  • inside-sources (1)
  • PERC (1)
  • samanth-subramanian (1)
  • adam-hart (1)
  • national-review (1)
  • origin-of-covid (21)
  • trade (1)
  • discourse (1)
  • warp-news (1)
  • vaccination (1)
  • the-knowledge-project (1)
  • genetic-literacy-project (1)
  • PoliticsHome (1)
  • food (1)
  • genetics (1)
  • insects (1)
  • interview (1)
  • science (3)
  • daily-mail (2)
  • radix (1)
  • china (3)
  • books (1)
  • politics (1)
  • uk-politics (6)
  • video (1)
  • spiked (2)
  • omicron (1)
  • the-sun (2)
  • russia (1)
  • africa (1)

Welcome to Matt Ridley's Blog

  • Home >
  • Blog

Matt Ridley is the author of provocative books on evolution, genetics and society. His books have sold over a million copies, been translated into thirty languages, and have won several awards.

Please note that this blog does not accept comments. If you're reading this blog and want to respond then please use the contact form on the site, or comment on his Facebook page. You can also follow him on Twitter @mattwridley.

Sign up for his new newsletter and like the new Viral Facebook page to make sure you don't miss any upcoming content.

availablenow.2to1.png

Matt Ridley's latest book Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, co-authored with scientist Alina Chan from Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute, is now available in the United States, in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

    Archive for date: May, 2014

  • Sometimes it is right to wipe out a species

    Published on: Wednesday, 28 May, 2014

    The world is better off without smallpox, polio, guinea worm, dengue mosquitoes

    My Times column is on the eradication of diseases and the resurrection fo extinct species. Both interferences with nature would be a good thing.

    The World Health Organisation’s annual assembly decided on Saturday evening not to set a date to destroy the last two remaining samples of smallpox virus kept in secure laboratories in Atlanta and Novosibirsk. Smallpox, being a virus, does not really count as a living species. But the prospect of the deliberate extinction of some harmful species is getting closer. Be in no doubt — it would be an unambiguously good thing.

    Smallpox was eradicated outside laboratories in 1977, when Ali Maow Maalin recovered from the disease in Merca, Somalia (he died last year of malaria). Until now researchers have wanted to keep the virus alive in the laboratory just in case they need to study it further. Pretty well everybody now agrees that the risk of keeping the virus is greater than the risk of not keeping it. Remember that the last case of smallpox was the death of Janet Parker, a medical photographer, in Birmingham in 1978, who caught it from a laboratory.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Oh for politicians who value social AND economic freedom

    Published on: Sunday, 25 May, 2014

    Is a political realignment in the offing?

    My Times column on the politics of liberty:

    As the Ukip campaign ploughs steadily farther off the rails into the anti-immigrant bushes, in search presumably of former British National Party voters, it becomes ever easier for small-government, classical liberals — like me — to resist its allure. Nigel Farage once advocated flat taxes, drug decriminalisation and spending cuts. Now his party has dropped the flat tax, opposes zero-hours contracts, is hostile to gay marriage and talks about subsidising farmers and growing the defence budget.

    Meanwhile, the Conservative party has probably never been so socially tolerant, or the Labour party so socially reactionary, as they are today. Is a great realignment possible, with the old Gladstonian coalition of economic free-marketers and social liberals gradually re-emerging, with Labour, Ukip, the Greens and the Lib Dems left appealing to those who fear change?

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • The coerced consensus

    Published on: Saturday, 17 May, 2014

    Lennart Bengtsson's treatment shows how climate sceptics are silenced

    My Thunderer column in the Times on the bullying of a distinguished climate scientist for having the temerity to advise those who doubt the speed of climate change:

    [update: links repaired below]

    Lennart Bengtsson is about as distinguished as climate scientists get. His decision two weeks ago to join the academic advisory board (on which I also sit, unremunerated) of Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation was greeted with fury by many fellow climate scientists. Now in a McCarthyite move — his analogy — they have bullied him into resigning by refusing to collaborate with him unless he leaves.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Race, genes and recent evolution

    Published on: Saturday, 17 May, 2014

    Collaboration between brains matter more than individual intelligence

    My Times column on the implications of genetic evolution since races diverged:

    Is it necessary to believe that racial differences are small and skin-deep in order not to be a racist? For the first half of the last century, science generally exaggerated stereotypes of racial difference in behaviour and assumed that they were innate and immutable. For the second half, science generally asserted that there were no differences — save the obvious, visible ones — and used this argument to combat prejudice.

    Yet that second premise is becoming increasingly untenable in the genomic era as more details emerge of human genetic diversity. We will have to justify equal treatment using something other than identity of nature. Fortunately, it’s easily done.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • Very well, alone

    Published on: Sunday, 11 May, 2014

    This planet and its moon are so peculiar, maybe there are none like it

    My Times column on the Lucky Planet theory:

    We may be unique and alone in the Universe, not because we are special but because we are lucky. By “we”, I mean not just the human race, but intelligent life itself. A fascinating book published last week has changed my mind about this mighty question, and I would like to change yours. The key argument concerns the Moon, which makes it an appropriate topic for a bank holiday Moonday.

    David Waltham, of Royal Holloway, University of London, is the author of the very readable Lucky Planet, which argues that the Earth is probably rare, perhaps even unique, as planets go. He is also a self-confessed “moon bore” who has made important discoveries about how the Moon formed.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
  • E-cigarettes are making tobacco obsolete, so why ban them?

    Published on: Sunday, 11 May, 2014

    Smoking will go the way of the top hat and the crinolineRead Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, spectator
  • Technology is often the mother of science, not vice versa

    Published on: Sunday, 04 May, 2014

    Britain is good at science, but poor at turning technology into industry

    My Times column is on the relationshio between science and technology, especially in the UK:

    The chancellor, George Osborne, made a speech on science in Cambridge last week in which he contrasted Britain’s “extraordinary” scientific achievements with “our historic weakness when it comes to translating those scientific achievements into commercial gain”. It’s a recurring complaint in British science policy that we discover things, then others make money out of them.

    Britain’s astonishing ability to gather scientific firsts — we are second only to the US in Nobel prizes — shows no sign of abating. We have won 88 scientific Nobel prizes, 115 if you add economics, literature and peace. This includes 12 in the past ten years and at least one in each of the past five years. But we filed fewer patents last year than the US, Japan, Germany, France, China or South Korea, and we have seen many British discoveries commercialised by others: graphene, DNA sequencing, the worldwide web, to name a few. So yes, we are good at science but bad at founding new industries.

    Read Full Post
    By: Matt Ridley | Tagged: rational-optimist, the-times
Subscribe to my blog

Receive all my latest posts straight to your inbox. simply subscribe below:

Name: *  
Email: *    
Captcha
Type the characters: *  
Please note: Any personal information you supply by submitting this form will be used solely for the purpose it was intended for. We will not be passing your information onto a third party or using your email for any additional marketing. Please also refer to our Privacy Policy on our website.

[*] denotes a required field

  • Site Map
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
Site by: Retox Digital