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Why selecting intelligent babies won’t happen
Matt Ridley
Recent findings about intelligence make designer babies less likely My Spectator article in the Christmas edition: Christmas Day marks the birthday of one of the most gifted human beings ever born. His brilliance was of a supernoval intensity, but he was, by all accounts, very far from pleasant company. I refer to Isaac Newton. Would […]
Matt Ridley
The most successful quit-smoking aid is banned from advertising My Times column on Britain’s successful use of electronic cigarettes (vaping) to cut smoking rates: Imagine if Britain led the world in a new electronic industry, both in production and consumption, if independent British manufacturers had a worldwide reputation for innovation and quality, were based […]
Right on plastics and PCBs, wrong on acidification
Matt Ridley
The BBC’s Blue Planet II is superb, but got a few things wrong My Times column on the BBC’s Blue Planet II: Nothing that Hollywood sci-fi screenwriters dream up for outer space begins to rival the beauty and ingenuity of life under water right here. Blue Planet II captured behaviour that was new to science as […]
Minimising the need for trusted third parties
Matt Ridley
Block chains work – and could be transformational My recent (4 December 2017) Times column on bitcoin, block chain and distributed ledgers: The price of a Bitcoin has risen tenfold in ten months. Yet whether and when the bubble will burst is beside the point, which is that Bitcoin works. What I mean by […]
Britain should give the EU £20 billion extra as an act of charity
Matt Ridley
The letter Theresa May should send with the cheque… My Times column on Britain’s “financial settlement” with the European Union: Theresa May reportedly plans to offer about £40 billion of our money in order to bring the European Union to the table to discuss whether it wishes to trade freely with Britain after we leave […]
Matt Ridley
Biotech is urgently needed, economically and environmentally, in Africa My Times column on the urgent need for biotechnology in African agriculture: An even more dangerous foe than Robert Mugabe is stalking Africa. Early last year, a moth caterpillar called the fall armyworm, a native of the Americas, turned up in Nigeria. It has quickly spread […]
Matt Ridley
Local action improves the environment, not more officials My Times column on environmental policy: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is right to promise higher, not lower, environmental standards once we leave the European Union. Britain has always been a pioneer of environmental policy, and indeed many of our protections pre-date our joining the EU. […]
Supporting wind and solar energy at the expense of the environment
Matt Ridley
A lawsuit reveals a bitter split over renewable energy My Reaction article on the disputes within the green movement: You can always tell when there is a United Nations Climate Conference of the Parties (COP) coming up, because there are any number of carefully timed press releases about how hot it has been or […]
Matt Ridley
We overestimate the impact of innovation in the short term but… My Times column on Amara’s Law: Alongside a great many foolish things that have been said about the future, only one really clever thing stands out. It was a “law” coined by a Stanford University computer scientist and long-time head of the Institute […]
Britian’s population growth requires building more houses
Matt Ridley
Too many people favour immigration but resist development My Times column on demography, immigration and the building of houses, roads and runways: The Office for National Statistics says it expects Britain’s population to grow slightly more slowly than it thought three years ago, partly because of lower immigration after Brexit and partly because of […]
