Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley Presentation copy inscribed & signed by the author on the title page thus: "to Catherine Best wishes Matt Ridley"; Fourth Estate 2003 1st ed/1st printing, 328pp., text generally in decent order albeit with browning to pages, browning/staining/rubbing to the page extremities at the very top, side & bottom, spine very slightly cocked & front board very slightly warped, slight bumping & rubbing to board corners at the bottom - heavier to those at the top, bumping & rubbing to the top, bottom & sides of boards - heavier to the top of the spine & heavier still to the base, bumping & rubbing to the rear bottom right hand corner, spine & rear a bit marked & marked, front board more so, the dust jacket has slight internal browning, is rubbed & creased at top & bottom (especially at the top of the front including one tiny tear) with scuffing to the top corners & top of spine, both covers are marked & scratched. Acclaimed author Matt Ridley's thrilling follow-up to his bestseller Genome. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour. What makes us who we are? In February 2001 it was announced that the genome contains not 100,000 genes as originally expected but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain; they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will. Published 50 years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA, Nature via Nurture chronicles a new revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling, up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience. Will ship by Royal Mail 1st Class Signed for, well packaged. (£5.99/d/stairs/left)