Mark Ridley (zoologist)

For other people named Mark Ridley, see Mark Ridley (disambiguation).

Mark Ridley
Born	England
Nationality	British (English)
Scientific career
Fields	Zoology, Evolutionary biology
Institutions	University of Oxford
Thesis	The comparative economics of reproductive behaviour (1987)
Doctoral advisor	Richard Dawkins

Mark Ridley (born 1956) is a British zoologist and writer on evolution.

He studied at both Oxford and Cambridge in the 1980s (his doctoral advisor being Richard Dawkins), and later worked at Emory University. As of 2010 he worked as a research assistant at the Department of Zoology, Oxford University. Ridley has worked on the evolution of reproductive behaviour and written a number of popular accounts of evolutionary biology, including articles for the New York Times, The Sunday Times, Nature, New Scientist and The Times Literary Supplement. He claims to be honoured to be frequently confused for Matt Ridley, another writer on evolution who is also from the UK.

Reception

Lee M. Silver, reviewing Genome in The New York Times, argues that the book's theme is that each individual's genome contains "echoes" (Ridley's word) of their ancestors' lives. Silver calls Ridley "adamant" in believing that the use of "personal genetics" must not be left for doctors or governments to control, following on from the mistakes of eugenics a century ago, but that it's a fundamental human right to "see and use the messages in their own DNA as they see fit." Silver describes the book as remarkable for focusing on "pure intellectual discovery", providing "delightful stories". He suggests that even practising geneticists will gain a sense of wonder from the "hidden secrets" in the book.

Works

• Evolution 1993 Blackwell; 3rd ed 2003 Wiley ISBN 978-1-4051-0345-9.
• Mendel's Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life 2001 ISBN 978-0-7538-1410-9
  • Released in the USA with the title: The Cooperative Gene 2001 ISBN 978-0-7432-0161-2
• Animal Behavior 1995 ISBN 978-0-632-01416-3
• The Problems of Evolution 1985 ISBN 978-0-19-219194-6
• The Darwin Reader (Second Edition) 1996 ISBN 978-0-393-96967-2
• How to Read Darwin 2006 ISBN 978-0-393-32881-3
• Evolution and classification: The reformation of cladism 1986 ISBN 978-0-582-44497-3
• Narrow Roads of Geneland (with W. D. Hamilton) 2006 ISBN 978-0-19-856690-8
• The Explanation of Organic Diversity 1983 ISBN 978-0-19-857597-9
• Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology: 1985 (with Richard Dawkins) Vol. 2 1986 ISBN 978-0-19-854174-5, Vol. 3 1987 ISBN 978-0-19-854199-8
• Animal Behaviour 1995 ISBN 978-0-86542-390-9
• Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think (editor, with Alan Grafen) 2007 ISBN 978-0-19-921466-2