The Selfish Gene Book Review
The Selfish Gene
In order to gain an understanding of the processes and history of genes and evolution, we read The Selfish Gene, written by Richard Dawkins. The novel touches on many different topics of the science of evolution, including genes, natural selection, viruses, and altruism between humans and the genes that make us up. The story goes deep into several different ideas that will create a large understanding of evolution and DNA for readers.
The book is said to have changed the way many scientists look at the process of natural selection. Richard Dawkins point of view is that of a gene on evolution, he writes about genes being self centered survivors and that multi-celled organisms are just mobile homes for genes. Dawkins describes that the earliest forms of life came to be by electrical energy combining with chemicals in early earth’s seas, it became a sort of “soup of the building blocks of life.”
Next, he talks about how DNA makes up the instructions for building every living thing. He says that every cell in an animal or plant contains the same instructions. Some of these instructions are lost, and others are passed down. Alleles are the ones that don’t get included in the instructions for building a new body.
The author states that there is no conscious control in genes that control the actions of living things. Dawkins shows through computer simulated games that the most selfish act is not to attack others in the animal’s group. Next, author explains why the selfish offspring don’t try to trick the parent into stealing from brothers and sisters to gain more resources and care from the parents. Again, the offspring share genes with nest mates, so siblings satisfied with having just enough will survive in larger numbers than selfish siblings.
In the next paragraph, the author shows how the strategy of having one parent leave the other alone to raise the offspring so it can go continue to mate is not a successful one. If the pair stays together, the chance that the offspring will be healthy is greater. Dawkins next talks about the idea of flocks and herds. Each individual will have a lesser chance of being eaten, injured, ect. if they are surrounded by a large group of the same species. The young will have a place to hide and the older animals can all work together to protect them. He talks about bees and their behavior in the hive and how they work together as a big group to survive.
Finally, the author shows how ideas can spread by the same processes as natural selection. He hopes that we, who are thinking, processing beings, can spread our ideas and ways of thinking more altruistically.
We have a mostly positive review on the information and a negative review on the writing style. For high school students, we only recommend The Selfish Gene to students who are very interested in the processes of evolution and who have an extensive and advanced vocabulary. Reading the book would most likely have been more enjoyable if the author had used simpler terms.
We recommend re-reading the book to fully grasp the concepts it holds. Although the language and ideas the book touches on can be understood by adults who have a past knowledge of the task of genes in human bodies and basic principles of evolution, we believe it is too advanced for high schoolers to begin their study of evolution on. It is also important to know the view and opinions of the author beforehand to be able to appreciate the words he uses to put across his points.
The subjects in the book show an atheist point of view of the job of our human bodies as containers for our genes.
In order to gain an understanding of the processes and history of genes and evolution, we read The Selfish Gene, written by Richard Dawkins. The novel touches on many different topics of the science of evolution, including genes, natural selection, viruses, and altruism between humans and the genes that make us up. The story goes deep into several different ideas that will create a large understanding of evolution and DNA for readers.
The book is said to have changed the way many scientists look at the process of natural selection. Richard Dawkins point of view is that of a gene on evolution, he writes about genes being self centered survivors and that multi-celled organisms are just mobile homes for genes. Dawkins describes that the earliest forms of life came to be by electrical energy combining with chemicals in early earth’s seas, it became a sort of “soup of the building blocks of life.”
Next, he talks about how DNA makes up the instructions for building every living thing. He says that every cell in an animal or plant contains the same instructions. Some of these instructions are lost, and others are passed down. Alleles are the ones that don’t get included in the instructions for building a new body.
The author states that there is no conscious control in genes that control the actions of living things. Dawkins shows through computer simulated games that the most selfish act is not to attack others in the animal’s group. Next, author explains why the selfish offspring don’t try to trick the parent into stealing from brothers and sisters to gain more resources and care from the parents. Again, the offspring share genes with nest mates, so siblings satisfied with having just enough will survive in larger numbers than selfish siblings.
In the next paragraph, the author shows how the strategy of having one parent leave the other alone to raise the offspring so it can go continue to mate is not a successful one. If the pair stays together, the chance that the offspring will be healthy is greater. Dawkins next talks about the idea of flocks and herds. Each individual will have a lesser chance of being eaten, injured, ect. if they are surrounded by a large group of the same species. The young will have a place to hide and the older animals can all work together to protect them. He talks about bees and their behavior in the hive and how they work together as a big group to survive.
Finally, the author shows how ideas can spread by the same processes as natural selection. He hopes that we, who are thinking, processing beings, can spread our ideas and ways of thinking more altruistically.
We have a mostly positive review on the information and a negative review on the writing style. For high school students, we only recommend The Selfish Gene to students who are very interested in the processes of evolution and who have an extensive and advanced vocabulary. Reading the book would most likely have been more enjoyable if the author had used simpler terms.
We recommend re-reading the book to fully grasp the concepts it holds. Although the language and ideas the book touches on can be understood by adults who have a past knowledge of the task of genes in human bodies and basic principles of evolution, we believe it is too advanced for high schoolers to begin their study of evolution on. It is also important to know the view and opinions of the author beforehand to be able to appreciate the words he uses to put across his points.
The subjects in the book show an atheist point of view of the job of our human bodies as containers for our genes.