The most important investigation of genetic science since The Selfish Gene, from the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling The Red Queen and The Origins of Virtue.

Sex is as fascinating to scientists as it is to the rest of us. A vast pool of knowledge has been gleaned from research into the nature of sex, from the contentious problem of why the wasteful reproductive process exists at all, to how individuals choose their mates and what traits they find attractive. This book explores those findings.

Chronicling a revolution in our understanding of genes, Matt Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture.

Why are people nice to each other? What are the reasons for altruism? This book explains how the human mind has evolved a special instinct for social exchange, offering a lucid and persuasive argument about the paradox of human benevolence.

Acclaimed author Matt Ridley traces the colourful life of the man who discovered the structure of DNA, the building blocks of life.

Acclaimed author Matt Ridley's thrilling follow-up to his bestseller 'Genome'. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour.