HISTORY and biography, ocean science and psychiatry, quarks, genes and
cyberlife: here’s hoping no one told the judges for the Aventis science book
prize that the job involved comparing like with like.
One name on this year’s notably strong shortlist sounds
familiar, but it is Mark Ridley, not the unrelated Matt. He makes it onto the
list with a closely woven tale of genes, evolution and the avoidance of error.
Mendel’s Demon is a thorough investigation of how a process as prone to
mistakes as DNA replication can be the basis for complex life. Ridley’s
explanation of how living things…
