The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

by Matt Ridley | Science |
ISBN: 0060556579 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingbooklady331wing of Cape Coral, Florida USA on 10/18/2008
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingbooklady331wing from Cape Coral, Florida USA on Saturday, October 18, 2008
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You have in your hands a free gift. This book is yours to do with as you wish...read it, share it, keep it, pass it on!
I've registered this at BookCrossing.com so that I can keep up on where it goes, who reads it, and what they thought of it. If you like the BookCrossing concept, you might want to register yourself with a screen name, so that you can keep up on this book, and maybe release others also! It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), fascinating, and fun!

Thank you for picking up this book. I'd love to see an entry letting me know it is safe with you. Do with it as you please... read it (or not!), give it to a friend, keep it, leave it in the wild - it's up to you! Enjoy! If you like you can mention me, booklady331, as the one who referred you.



Journal Entry 2 by wingbooklady331wing at Cape Coral, Florida USA on Tuesday, August 25, 2015
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to finish the book but I did. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It is a bit dated being written in 1994. I wanted to answer some of his questions - "God" I believe that God created the world and sex. Still the author made some interesting points.

From Publishers Weekly

Why do we have sex? One of the main biological reasons, contends Ridley, is to combat disease. By constantly combining and recombining genes every generation, people "keep their genes one step ahead of their parasites," thereby strengthening resistance to bacteria and viruses that cause deadly diseases or epidemics. Called the "Red Queen Theory" by biologists after the chess piece in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass which runs but stays in the same place, this hypothesis is just one of the controversial ideas put forth in this witty, elegantly written inquiry. Ridley, a London-based science writer and a former editor of the Economist , argues that men are polygamous for the obvious reason that whichever gender has to spend the most time and energy creating and rearing offspring tends to avoid extra mating. Women, though far less interested in multiple partners, will commit adultery if stuck with a mediocre mate. In Ridley's not wholly convincing conclusion, even human intellect is chalked up to sex: virtuosity, individuality, inventiveness and related traits are what make people sexually attractive.

From Library Journal

This is a fascinating book filled with lucid prose and seductive reasoning. Freelance science writer Ridley reaches into the literature of genetics; molecular, theoretical and evolutionary biology; ecology; sociology; and anthropology to weave an extraordinary tale of the evolution of human nature, beginning with the evolution of sex. Using Lewis Carroll's Red Queen (who runs as fast as she can to stay in the same place) as a metaphor for evolution, Ridley shows how sex was the result of an evolutionary arms race between hosts and their disease-causing parasites. Ridley covers so much ground that transitions may be abrupt or unclear, particularly in the last two chapters; also, his review of human homosexuality is thin. His occasionally pompous style (including his immediate dismissal of those who do not believe in evolution) may offend some readers. However, Ridley clearly explains many complex and remarkable concepts for a wide audience.

Journal Entry 3 by wingbooklady331wing at Cape Coral, Florida USA on Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (8/25/2015 UTC) at Cape Coral, Florida USA

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Enjoy! For the A - Z Read and release challenge 2015

Journal Entry 4 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Sunday, September 6, 2015
This lovely RABCK was waiting for me when I returned home from a trip to Portland for my birthday. Thanks so very much! Yay presents! I think I know just who to pass it on to when I'm done, too.

Journal Entry 5 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Saturday, December 5, 2015
I tried several times to get into this but just couldn't. It's a fascinating subject and I don't know why it didn't grab me, but it didn't. I'll be passing this on to a friend, currently studying to be a midwife and very interested in the science of sex. She's love it. Thanks for passing it along!

Journal Entry 6 by Firegirl at Annandale, Virginia USA on Saturday, December 5, 2015

Released 8 yrs ago (12/5/2015 UTC) at Annandale, Virginia USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Passing on to the ever wonderful Reaux.

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