The Price of Altruism ─ George Price and the Tragic Search for the Origins of Kindness

Survival of the fittest or survival of the nicest? Since the dawn of time man has contemplated the mysteries of innate kindness--what scientists call "altruism." But it was Darwin who posed the question most starkly. From the selfless ant to the stinging bee to the man laying down his life for a stranger, evolution has yielded a goodness that in theory should never be.

The Price of Altruism tells the incredible story of the eccentric American genius George Price (1922-1975), as he strives to answer this riddle of evolution. From the heights of the Manhattan Project to the depths of homelessness and despair, his life embodies the paradoxes of Darwin's enigma. What he finds on his intellectual journey compels him to give away all his belongings to others, becoming one of the vagabonds he set out to save. His tragic suicide, alone in a squatter's flat, provides the ultimate contemplation on the possibility of genuine benevolence.

Oren Harman, who has a doctorate from Oxford University, is the chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Bar Ilan University and a professor of the history of science. He is the author of The Man Who Invented the Chromosome, a documentary filmmaker, and a frequent contributor to the New Republic. He lives in Tel Aviv and New York