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Over 10,000 years ago there were fewer than 10 million people on the planet. Today there are more than six billion, 99 per cent of whom are better fed, better sheltered, better entertained and better protected against disease than their Stone Age ancestors. Yet, bizarrely, however much things improve from the way they were before, people still cling to the belief that the future will be nothing but disastrous.

Genome unravels the secrets of human nature without the usual reams of technical jargon. It shows outstanding breakthroughs in gene research, how we've gone from knowing almost nothing to knowing almost everything, and how our genes reveal more about our past, our evolution, and even our minds. Every important event in human history is written into our genes, whether it happened four billion or a few hundred years ago. All you need to know is where to look.

Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes in our society. It is innovation that will shape the 21st century. Yet innovation remains a mysterious process, poorly understood by policy makers and businessmen alike. Matt Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens as a direct result of the human habit of exchange, rather than an orderly, top-down process developing according to a plan.

In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple transaction. Many treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the center of Matt Ridley’s investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an exhausting and sometimes deadly ritual called a ‘lek’. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers.

Genetic engineering expert Dr Alina Chan and renowned science writer Matt Ridley examine the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, using their formidable skills to scrutinise arguments and rigorously analyse the sprawling data. Viral is a fascinating account that takes in pangolins, horseshoe bats, internet sleuths and misleading scientific papers. It details the evidence and investigates hypotheses for the virus origin, chief among them a potential laboratory leak or a natural spillover.

Brought to you by Penguin. Including conversations with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and more, this is an essential guide to the most exciting ideas of our time and their proponents from our most brilliant science communicator. This audio edition also includes Richard Dawkins...

Actor Matt Damon and writer John Ridley on this edition of Fresh Air. Matt Damon's film The Bourne Identity is being released on DVD next week. The Bourne Identity is a thriller about a man with amnesia flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, riddled with bullet holes. Damon has been in many hit films, including The Talented Mr. Ripley, Saving Private Ryan and Good Will Hunting, which he co-wrote with close friend Ben Affleck.

La innovación es la actividad más importante de nuestra época: trae progresos espectaculares a nuestro nivel de vida, pero también, en ocasiones, cambios inquietantes a la sociedad.

Brought to you by Penguin. Winning Not Fighting draws on the philosophy of Wing Tsun, an ancient Chinese martial art, to offer a profound and practical guide to achieving success at work, life and business. By explaining what these teachings reveal about decision-making, professional...