Sex, Science and Profits [Hardcover]

`[a] provocative and wonderfully iconoclastic book ... Kealey takes us on an entertaining, and often hilarious, voyage from the Stone Age to the present day, demonstrating that science flourishes in laissez-faire environment and withers as soon as governments or despots begin to meddle.'

`Kealey writes with the passion of a zealot, which makes the book brisk and...entertaining.'

`A fascinating and important book'

`Witty, brilliant, thought-provoking and provocative, this is an important and controversial book'

`Kealey takes us on an entertaining canter through global history, from the Stone Age, through the Bronze, Dark and Middle ages, to the industrial and agricultural revolutions and beyond.'

"Kealey has brilliantly extended his hero Adam Smith's argument to the world of science."

"Hugely ambitious, stupendously confident and unrelentingly provocative. It is a tropical storm of a book."

"This is a bracing arguement, and Kealey writes clearly and well."

"A devastating critique of states' failure to fund economically useful knowledge."

"Kealey takes his readers on a remarkable journey."

The question 'What is art?' is frequently debated - often by works of 'art' themselves. The question 'What is science?' appears to be discussed less often, and less publicly - though the answers could be even more revealing about our species...Some people see science as a public good, funded by governments and philanthropists, and performed by altruistic scientists for the benefit of mankind. Such people view science as progress. But others see science as a private good, driven by profit, promoted by businesses and certain institutions looking for economic and political power. Such science may be dangerous. In this original ground-breaking book in the tradition of Richard Dawkins and Jared Diamond, Terence Kealey shows that science is not a thing apart but rather, like trade and contract, embedded in human nature, having evolved on the evolutionary principles of natural and sexual selection. "Sex, Science and Profits" ranges across history to explore the nature of science, economics and philosophy. Starting with the Neolithic discovery of tools, this book explains the role of concubines in Ancient Egypt and the emergence of the Portuguese as Europe's premier seafaring explorers; questions the usefulness of patents, and describes how the race for technological progress plays out between nations, governments and corporations. Richly multi-disciplinary, witty, brilliant and thought-provoking, "Sex, Science and Profits" shows how an understanding of sexual and natural selection can transform our view of progress in economics, business and technology. It is an important and controversial book.

Twelve years ago I published a book with the terrible title of The Economic Laws of Scientific Research where I showed that the historical and empirical evidence confirmed that no economic or scientific benefit flowed from the government funding of research. That was an unexpected finding and I was, initially, as surprised as everyone else.

In reviewing that book Richard Nelson, the economics Nobel laureate, commented that it could be discounted because I had produced no new model. ie, people believed that science was a public good, which meant that without government funding then it - and economic growth - would wither away. But if science did not need government funding then it could not be a public good. So, what is it?

In this new book (with its improved title) I show that science is organised in invisible colleges, and I build on its sociology to describe it as an invisible college good.

Economic growth depends on innovation, and here I survey our economic history since the stone ages to show that economic growth can be understood only as the product of invisible colleges. I also demolish the standard economists' model of the perfect market. Oh, and I show that patents damage both research and economic growth.

This book is meant to be a fun romp through serious issues.

The question ‘What is art?’ is frequently debated – often by works of ‘art’ themselves. The question ‘What is science?’ appears to be discussed less often, and less publicly – though the answers could be even more revealing about our species…

Some people see science as a public good, funded by governments and philanthropists, and performed by altruistic scientists for the benefit of mankind. Such people view science as progress. But others see science as a private good, driven by profit, promoted by businesses and certain institutions looking for economic and political power. Such science may be dangerous. In this original ground-breaking book in the tradition of Richard Dawkins and Jared Diamond, Terence Kealey shows that science is not a thing apart but rather, like trade and contract, embedded in human nature, having evolved on the evolutionary principles of natural and sexual selection.

Sex, Science and Profits ranges across history to explore the nature of science, economics and philosophy. Starting with the Neolithic discovery of tools, this book explains the role of concubines in Ancient Egypt and the emergence of the Portuguese as Europe’s premier seafaring explorers; questions the usefulness of patents, and describes how the race for technological progress plays out between nations, governments and corporations.

Richly multi-disciplinary, witty, brilliant and thought-provoking, Sex, Science and Profits shows how an understanding of sexual and natural selection can transform our view of progress in economics, business and technology. It is an important and controversial book.

Praise for The Economic Laws of Scientific Research:
'A brilliant book. One of the most appetising and sustained polemics ever concocted on a serious topic'
Economist
'One of the most intelligent, trend-changing and courageous books I have ever read' Matt Ridley in the Daily Telegraph

Terence Kealey is a clinical biochemist specialising in the biochemistry of hair. He writes regularly for the Spectator, the Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and the New Scientist.