Mar 18 2011
Dr. Matt Ridley
New York Times Bestselling Science Writer, Chairman of The International Center for Life
Dr. Matt Ridley is a highly respected, award winning popularizer of science, and a very incisive writer and thinker. He has been a scientist, journalist and science editor, Washington correspondent and American editor of The Economist and Wired magazine columnist. He has written books that give a clear explanation of very complex biology, such as the description of the human genome sequence, and poses debates about the constant scientific and technological implications for human societies.
“Matt Ridley tackles some of today’s most pressing modern problems”
Matt Ridley received his BA and D. Phil at Oxford, researching the evolution of behaviour. He is the chairman of the International Centre for Life, in Newcastle, England and is also a visiting professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. He was science editor and American editor of The Economist between 1983 and 1992. He was a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph between 1993 and 2000. He was the founding chairman of the International Centre for Life, a £70 million science park and education project, between 1996 and 2003. [/expand]
Matt Ridley sweeps the entire arc of human history to powerfully argue that “prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else”. At TEDGlobal 2010, his stand out presentation showed how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is. As the mayor of London recently wrote, Matt offers “an elegant and devastating rejoinder to all gloom-merchants everywhere”.[/expand]
Always a scintillating speaker, Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He shows why; and he explains why human beings are the only creatures that experience prosperity or poverty, making his arguments with such brilliance and historical breadth.
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Watch a video presentation of Dr. Matt Ridley
Topics
When Ideas Have Sex: The Evolution of Technology in Civilization
Rational Optimism
The Human Footprint
The Source of Innovation
Nature and Nurture
How Prosperity Evolves: An Evening with Matt Ridley
Publications
2010
The Rational Optimist
2006
Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code
2003
Nature via Nurture
1999
Genome
1996
The Origins of Virtue
1993
The Red Queen
Matt’s books have sold over 800,000 copies, been translated into 27 languages and been short-listed for six literary prizes.
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