Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators.

The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture -- including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband.

Brilliantly written, The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved..

For more information about the title The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation — Human life, scientific journalist Matt Ridley suggests, is a complex balancing act: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways ...  > read more

Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters) — Many of us pursue fitness because we want to remain attractive to partners and potential partners, and we stay healthy so we can continue to have sex ...  > read more

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books) — An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and ...  > read more

Jamestown, the Buried Truth — What was life really like for the band of adventurers who first set foot on the banks of the James River in 1607? Important as the accomplishments of ...  > read more

Author: Matt Ridley

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Date: May. 1, 2003

List Price:

$14.95

Discount Price:

$7.05

Related Stories

Ancient Seal Belonged To Queen Jezebel (October 29, 2007) — An Old Testament scholar has discovered that a seal found in 1964 and dating from the 9th century BCE belonged to the biblical figure Queen Jezebel. The seal's symbols served as the basis for ...  > read more

Searching For The Queen Of Sheba (May 18, 2005) — The queen of Sheba was once one of the most powerful leaders in the world but there are few clues left anywhere about this woman who ruled a rich and powerful nation somewhere in Africa -- perhaps, ...  > read more

Evolving Slower Gets You The Bigger Piece Of The Pie (January 21, 2003) — A well known effect in the arms race that ensues between host and parasite, the red queen effect, states that the species that is able to evolve countermeasures faster than its partner will gain the ...  > read more

Some Paper Wasp Queens Sit And Wait To Hijack Or Adopt Another Queen's Nest, Cornell Researcher Discovers (August 13, 1998) — Scientists once believed that a wasp queen took over another queen's nest only if her own nest had been destroyed. That's wrong. ...  > read more

Fire Ant Queens And Workers Negotiate "Truce" On Colony Sex Ratio (August 20, 2001) — It may be the world's tiniest power struggle: Queens and workers in fire ant society are often at odds about the proportion of new male and female ants raised in their colonies. The conflict ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Unbreakable Glass