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Matt Ridley
More and more evidence that it was warm and global My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal is on the Medieval Warm Period: A flurry of recent scientific papers has tried to measure the warmth of the “Medieval Warm Period” (MWP) of about 1,000 years ago. Scientists have long debated whether […]
Matt Ridley
All animal vision derives from one common ancestor My latest Mind and Matter column is on the origin of vision in animals and a vindication for Darwin: Until recently it was possible, even plausible, to think that the faculty of vision had originated several times during the course of animal evolution. New research suggests not: […]
Diseases and pests are the real ecological threat
Matt Ridley
The bureaucracy’s carbon obsession is distracting I have an article in this week’s Spectator about ash trees and exotic pests: I’m pessimistic about the ash trees. It seems unlikely that a fungus that killed 90 per cent of Denmark’s trees and spreads by air will not be devastating here, too. There is a glimmer of […]
Wolves versus lesser predators
Matt Ridley
The return of top predators is good for prey eaten by “mesopredators” My latest Mind and Matter column at the Wall Street Journal is on wolves and “mesopredators”: The return of the wolf is one of the unexpected ecological bonuses of the modern era. So numerous are wolves that this fall Wisconsin and Wyoming have […]
Why Can’t Things Get Better Faster (or Slower)?
Matt Ridley
The surprising regularity of technological progress My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal: In 1965, the computer expert Gordon Moore published his famous little graph showing that the number of “components per integrated function” on a silicon chip-a measure of computing power-seemed to be doubling every year and a half. […]
Epigenetic inheritance is a wild goose chase
Matt Ridley
Epigenetics matters, but not between generations This week’s award of the Nobel Prize for medicine to John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka effectively recognizes the science of epigenetics. Dr. Gurdon showed that almost any cell (in a frog) contains all the genetic information to become an adult. What makes the cell develop a certain way is […]
Matt Ridley
After 15 years, the ecological and economic dividends are big My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal is on genetically modified crops: Generally, technologies are judged on their net benefits, not on the claim that they are harmless: The good effects of, say, the automobile and aspirin outweigh their dangers. Today, […]
Matt Ridley
The psychology of libertarian views My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal finds that just as liberals and conservatives have predictable personalities, so do libertarians: An individual’s personality shapes his or her political ideology at least as much as circumstances, background and influences. That is the gist of a recent […]
Matt Ridley
It’s happened before My latest Mind and Matter column in the Wall Street Journal is about the retreat of Arctic Sea Ice and what it means: This week probably saw the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice reach its minimum extent for the year and begin to expand again, as it usually does in mid-September. Given that […]
Tobacco denial and pesticide alarm
Matt Ridley
Rachel Carson and Al Gore relied on a tobacco denier I have an article in the Spectator drawing attention to the curious fact that Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring owed much to a passionate tobacco denier. It’s behind a paywall, but there it is with the sources as links. Hat tip Ron Bailey. Rachel Carson’s […]
