Delay to UK Publication of How Innovation Works
Matt Ridley
Now Coming 25th June Because of the global coronavirus crisis, I have agreed with my publisher’s request to delay publication of the UK edition of my new book How Innovation Works from 14 May till 25 June. The US edition will be published on 19 May as planned, because printing has already begun. The book […]
A vaccine for coronavirus isn’t going to ride rapidly to our rescue
Matt Ridley
My article for the Telegraph: In 1934, in their spare time, two American biologists, Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering, developed a vaccine for whooping cough, then the biggest killer of children in the United States. Within four years their vaccine was being used throughout Michigan and within six it was being used nationwide. Whooping cough […]
We are about to find out how robust civilisation is
Matt Ridley
The hardships ahead will be like nothing we have ever known My article for Spectator: On Sunday, lonely as a cloud, I wandered across a windswept moor in County Durham and passed a solitary sandstone rock with a small, round hollow in the top, an old penny glued to the base of the hollow. It […]
Optimism and Innovation During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Matt Ridley
“I thought you were the rational optimist. Why are you fear-mongering over Covid-19?” This is a real threat. But we will beat this. And we’ll go on to make an even better life for people in the years ahead. I took a deep dive into the Covid-19 epidemic, how to manage risk, solutions to past […]
Coronavirus is the wolf on the loose
Matt Ridley
This time the warnings are not overdone My article for Reaction: In Aesop’s fable about the boy who cried “Wolf!”, the point of the tale is that eventually there was a wolf, but the boy was not believed because he had given too many false alarms. In my view, the Covid-19 coronavirus is indeed a […]
We all need to change how we live our lives to fight this generation of pandemics
Matt Ridley
Culture and practice can change without putting Big Brother in charge My article for The Telegraph: In the 19th century Ignaz Semmelweis was vilified and ostracised when he tried to make doctors wash their hands after doing autopsies on women who had died from childbirth fever before going straight upstairs to deliver more babies. We […]
Why have so many of our recent viruses come from bats?
Matt Ridley
Coronavirus is far from the first disease they’ve passed on to us My article from The Spectator: I’m no Nostradamus, but 20 years ago when I was commissioned to write a short book about disease in the new millennium, I predicted that if a new pandemic did happen it would be a virus, not a […]
