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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
REAL REVIEW PENDING but super-short version: after having finally read this, I can see why it has been held up as influential and widely regarded as a masterpiece. Dawkins cuts into some deep science here with very accessible language, painting a vivid picture of what genes are, what their function is, as well as what our function is as vehicles for those genes.
SIDE NOTE: Any aspiring science fiction author must read this. If you want to a lush inter-galactic tapestry with bizarre but believable alien species, start close to home. You don't know bizarre until you read about ant queens that invade the colonies of other ant species and secrete mind-control hormones to turn that colonies workers into zombies that murder their own mother.
SIDE NOTE: Any aspiring science fiction author must read this. If you want to a lush inter-galactic tapestry with bizarre but believable alien species, start close to home. You don't know bizarre until you read about ant queens that invade the colonies of other ant species and secrete mind-control hormones to turn that colonies workers into zombies that murder their own mother.
In general lines this is a good book, it has an accessible language to deal with a not so simple subject. The examples and studies are discussed in a depth manner (besides not without biases).
Unfortunately, the theory itself doesn't seem right to me. The author was selective on the examples, some of the theories used to support his view are known as outdated nowadays (mainly biological ones). Also, in different places his theory opposite itself with Darwin's evolutionary theory, what is hard to ignore!
A big flag to me is that we don't know exactly how genes work. We know some functions for some genes, but we have a lot of missing information about this workflow. And create an entire theory upon this thing we barely know it's a kind of shoot on the darkness. Some great theories emerged from shooting in the darkness as well, like relativity and double helices theories. But different from "The selfish gene" theory, they have solid experiments that help to prove the point and don't have a lot of gaps where the theory just doesn't make sense, like "The selfish gene" does.
If you like science and care to understand how things work maybe it's a better idea to spend your time in some already consolidated work.
Unfortunately, the theory itself doesn't seem right to me. The author was selective on the examples, some of the theories used to support his view are known as outdated nowadays (mainly biological ones). Also, in different places his theory opposite itself with Darwin's evolutionary theory, what is hard to ignore!
A big flag to me is that we don't know exactly how genes work. We know some functions for some genes, but we have a lot of missing information about this workflow. And create an entire theory upon this thing we barely know it's a kind of shoot on the darkness. Some great theories emerged from shooting in the darkness as well, like relativity and double helices theories. But different from "The selfish gene" theory, they have solid experiments that help to prove the point and don't have a lot of gaps where the theory just doesn't make sense, like "The selfish gene" does.
If you like science and care to understand how things work maybe it's a better idea to spend your time in some already consolidated work.
informative
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Jag läser inte facklitteratur särskilt ofta (aldrig), men eftersom den här boken faller inom mina intressen tänkte jag att det hade varit intressant att läsa. Väldigt spännande teorier som har gett mig ett nytt perspektiv att titta på gener, evolution och beteende från.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I read this book as someone who was completely science illiterate. It was not only a great introduction to genetics and biology in general, but it introduced some really neat concepts (like memes, and that genes have 'desires', anthropomorphically speaking). This book was accessible and really hooked me into learning more about science. I attribute this book as to the turning point that eventually lead to my becoming a science teacher.
A couple of the ideas in this book were pretty revolutionary, and Dawkins coined some pretty now-popular terms in this little gem.
This book is very general and introductory, so if you are well versed in genetics, this may not be the book for you - though it has some great analogies that may be useful to have in your head for the next cocktail party you're at. Do people still have cocktail parties? Anyway, fantastic book!
A couple of the ideas in this book were pretty revolutionary, and Dawkins coined some pretty now-popular terms in this little gem.
This book is very general and introductory, so if you are well versed in genetics, this may not be the book for you - though it has some great analogies that may be useful to have in your head for the next cocktail party you're at. Do people still have cocktail parties? Anyway, fantastic book!