298 Quotes by Matt Ridley

at this point, the analysis of gene expression in the brain isn't prectical because current (and foreseeable)techniques require that we analyze a piece of brain tissue. Most people find that unpleasant.

A four-letter alphabet called DNA.

Az, hogy ez a könyv kifejezetten egy faj helyzetével foglalkozik - az emberi fajéval -, semmit nem jelent e faj fontosságát tekintve. Persze az ember valóban különleges. A két füle között a bolygó legbonyolultabb biológiai gépezetét hordozza. A komlexitás azonban nem minden, és nem az evolúció célja. Ezen a bolygón minden faj egyedülálló. A páratlanság itt túlkínálatban lévő árucikk.

...nature has never found human incomprehension a reason for changing her methods.

If you think being descended from apes is bad for your self esteem, then get used to the idea that you are also descended from viruses.

At some point, human intelligence became collective and cumulative in a way that happened to no other animal.

We consciously decide whether to consider people; we fall in love despite ourselves; we entirely fail to fall in love with people who fall in love with us. It is a mightily complicated business.

In history, and in evolution, progress is always a futile, Sisyphean struggle to stay in the same relative place by getting ever better at things. Cars move through the congested streets of London no faster than horse-drawn carriages did a century ago. Computers have no effect on productivity because people learn to complicate and repeat tasks that have been made easier.

TP53 seems to encode the greater good, like a suicide pill in the mouth of a soldier that dissolves only when it detects evidence that he is about to mutiny.