[The price of altruism].

T he way a scientist chooses problems and interprets nature can be deeply infl uenced by political views or religious beliefs. At the same time, the scientifi c truths that last the centuries have a coldly inhuman, rational purity beyond the motivations and beliefs of their human authors. George Price’s story brings us up against these alternative traces of history. Price made three profound contributions to evolutionary theory. First, the Price equation for the effect of selection on a trait ( 1) provided the foundation for the modern analysis of social evolution. W. D. Hamilton completely reworked his famous theory of kin selection after Price explained to him the severe limitations of his original formulation and the need to use Price’s equation. The equation also gives the most general understanding of natural selection, transcending genetics to include cultural change, learning, and all forms of dynamical change arising from transmission and biased success. Second, John Maynard Smith’s interest in the application of game theory to evolution came directly from Price’s original formulation of ritualized combat in animals. In Price’s work, mutually armed détente in animal combat arises from the Nash equilibrium of game theory. The fi rst general expression and application of the widely used evolutionarily stable strategy concept in evolutionary games came from Price’s work. Third, Price’s analysis of R. A. Fisher’s fundamental theorem of natural selection cleared up four decades of confusion. Establishing the generality of Fisher’s theorem, Price’s insight opened the way for a fully realized understanding of natural selection as a central process in all types of evolutionary change. Each insight was so different from the common thought of its time. How did Price do it? Who was he, and where did he come from? Pieces of the story have been known among evolutionary biologists, just enough to make clear that the history was very strange and in the end very sad. We now welcome Oren Harman’s deeply researched life of Price. Harman, a historian of science at Bar Ilan University, tells Price’s story well. Price was born in New York in 1923. His father died early, and the family fortunes crashed with the stock market in 1929, leading to much stress in family life. Price’s personality developed early: vain, brilliant, difficulty relating to others, but somehow always secure in his own independent ability to see problems clearly. He obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Chicago, working as part of the Manhattan Project. His secret research won a competition for the best method to detect radiation exposure by fl uorescent analysis of urine samples. He moved from one science job to another—always recognized for his outstanding ability to solve problems but never staying long with any particular work. He was married, had two daughters, became restless, and was bitterly divorced. Moving, studying, and seeking, he published articles in leading journals and magazines about extrasensory perception, methods for the rapid design of new machines, and the arms race. He had ideas and often real insight on seemingly everything. But after his initial success, he rarely fi nished anything. Usually alone, he took lower-status jobs or did not work at all. Price had health problems; a botched surgery caused partial paralysis. He obtained some insurance money in a settlement and, at 44, set off for England to begin again, to focus his mind, to make his reputation. Ambitious, certain of his ability, painfully aware of his failure, he increasingly felt the need to do good the only way he knew how—by his belief in clarity of analysis above all else. Day after lonely day in London libraries, Price slowly moved toward problems of evolution, altruism, and game theory. Maybe he could understand the biological roots of kindness, and do so more deeply than others ever had. By some internal story, he perhaps felt that a success in such studies would assuage his prior failings, make his mark in life, and turn things around. Just as Price succeeds against all odds, making his three great contributions and touching on other topics, he starts on a series of religious conversions. Having scored, by pure reason alone, a triumph on biological altruism and the most abstract theories of natural selection, he loses faith in science and begins to study scripture with a zeal and analytical power that scares his religious mentors. Then even the scriptural analysis wanes, and he turns to help the downtrodden. Not just to help but to give all he has of his time, possessions, and love—to the point that he becomes as downtrodden as those he sought to help. Struggles and depression follow; at last, suicide. Harman takes us through all of this. But the book is much more ambitious than just a story of Price’s life and work: “Our tale teaches that the people doing science, their backgrounds, historical context, family histories, education, political views, religious affi liations, temperament—all play a role.”