Matt Ridley

The author is grateful to the following publishers for permission to reprint brief extracts: Harvard University Press for four extracts from Nancy Wexler's article in The Code of Codes, edited by D. Kevles and R. Hood (pp. 62-9); Aurum Press for an extract from The Gene Hunters by William Cookson (p. 78); Macmillan Press for extracts from Philosophical Essays by A. J. Ayer (p. 338) and What Remains to Be Discovered by J. Maddox (p. 194); W. H. Freeman for extracts from The Narrow Roads of Gene Land by W. D. Hamilton (p. 131); Oxford University Press for extracts from The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (p. 122) and Fatal Protein by Rosalind Ridley and Harry Baker (p. 285); Weidenfeld and Nicolson for an extract from One Renegade Cell by Robert Weinberg (p. 237). The author has made every effort to obtain permission for all other extracts from published work reprinted in this book.

This book was originally published in Great Britain in 1999 by Fourth Estate Limited.

GENOME. Copyright © 1999 by Matt Ridley. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10

East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.

FIRST U.S. EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ridley, Matt

Genome: the autobiography of a species in 23 chapters/Matt Ridley.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-06-019497-9

1. Human genome Popular works. 2. Human genetics Popular works. I. Title.

QH431.R475 2000

599.93'5—dc21 99-40933

00 01 02 03 04 RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgements l

Preface 3

1 Life 11

2 Species 23

3 History 38

4 Fate 54

5 Environment 65

6 Intelligence 76

7 Instinct 91

X and Y Conflict 107

8 Self-interest 122

9 Disease 136

10 Stress 147

11 Personality 161

12 Self-Assembly 173

13 Pre-History 185

14 Immortality 195

15 Sex 206

16 Memory 219

17 Death 231

18 Cures 243

19 Prevention 258

20 Politics 271

21 Eugenics 286

22 Free Will 301

Bibliography and Notes 314

Index 337

A L S O B Y M A T T R I D L E Y