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The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins<br />
Recommended by Mrs Robson<br />
This book was first published when I was an undergraduate studying Zoology and Botany at the University of<br />
Sheffield. I found it completely absorbing: this idea that the whole point of life is to beget more life and that<br />
DNA [genes] programming an individual to outbreed others in the population [be better adapted to survive], will<br />
be propagated at the expense of others was implicit in Darwin’s concept of<br />
Natural Selection. However, its application to the behaviour of individuals, in<br />
particular to apparent acts of altruism amongst animals, and the construct of an<br />
Evolutionary Stable Strategy [ESS] was, to me at that time, a revelation. I later<br />
went on to study the genetics and behaviour of social insects [ants, bees, and<br />
termites] in greater depth, along with the reproductive strategies of a range of<br />
mammals. In every case the ESS shone through to illuminate my understanding.<br />
Others have written more eloquently than Dawkins, but I can honestly say that<br />
this book was my epiphany and its ideas remain with me to this day.
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