The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary Edition

"The Selfish Gene" is a groundbreaking and thought-provoking book that presents a new way of understanding evolution by natural selection. Dawkins provides readers with a comprehensive exposition of how evolutionary competition between genes is the key to understanding the origin, persistence, and diversity of life. Dawkins challenges the traditional concept of evolution by introducing the idea that the genes themselves rather than the organisms, are the agents of natural selection. He establishes the concept of the "selfish gene," a term that describes how genes compete, survive, and reproduce within a biological ecosystem. The book is written in an engaging and accessible style, presenting complex scientific concepts in a clear and concise manner, making it approachable for a wide audience. Overall, "The Selfish Gene" is an extraordinary work that has reshaped the way scientists and non-scientists alike understand evolution. It's a stimulating and mind-expanding book that offers a fresh perspective on one of the fundamental questions of life.

PFS Book Club --- 1st April, 23 Harari popularized evolution and human history just like Baba Ramdev popularized yoga. This is how Manish kick started the discussion on the book The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. Even you have slept in your biology class in high school, Manish ensured that we go back to our class and remember all our lessons😊. Briefly what I remember is that each protein consists of liner sequence of amino acids whose sequence is encoded in gene and genes are composed of DNA arranged on chromosomes. We discussed about Darwin’s theory of evolution also called natural selection or survival of fittest. Darwin’s theory is based on the premise that species evolve over time, Manish explained that how Darwin’s made a blunder of not considering how traits passed from generation to generation. And then he briefed about Mendel’s law of inheritance explaining how traits are passed from one generation to next and sometimes skip generations. There was also mention of pea experiment which Mendel did to explain mathematical model of biological inheritance. In light humor Chandrashekhar mentioned about the exchange between George Bernard shaw and some famous actress on the topic of producing a child together. Actress mentioned that combination of Shaw’s brain and actress beauty will yield a remarkable child and Shaw replied that he feared that child might have combination of his beauty and her brains. He also gave some examples of how worker bees sting when their hive is in danger and die after stinging. There was also mention how mammals evolved from egg laying creature to giving birth with origin of placenta and how strong thigh bone is one of the factors for mammal to give birth. The book talks about the gene-centered view of evolution. Gene achieves stability and procreation amidst the changing surrounding and environment sometimes at the cost of the organism itself. In other words, species is just a mere vehicle to enable gene propagation. Our traits and physical characteristics are the result of our inheritance of these genes. The discussion flowed into the direction of dominant-what is observed and recessive gene-the ones that aren't expressed. The discussion was varied right from the secret life of plants to our beliefs being rooted on science. All in all, an intriguing session on the history of evolution right from the time the Earth was formed till recent times as humans are trying to defy our natural construct. It leaves us with the question - what lies ahead in this game of 'Survival of the Fittest'. Take away for me was why two tigers don’t fight, they mark their territory by whosever pug mark’s impression is high on the tree. They don’t fight so that don’t get weakened against enemy and respect each other’s territory. Richard Dawkins has done amazing job in explaining about the evolution of human in a scientific way, however I still feel Harari has made it easy for everybody to understand😊 Yet another amazing session 😊