The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science) — Epilogue to 40th Anniversary Edition

1. 1. Dawkins defines a gene in the Williams sense as any portion of chromosomal material that potentially lasts for enough generations to serve as a unit of natural selection.
2. 2. The individual organism cannot serve as a unit of natural selection in the replicator sense because it has a frequency of one.
3. 3. Genes are selfish but also cooperative with other genes in the species' gene pool, forming a cartel of mutually compatible genes.
4. 4. Dawkins suggests 'The Cooperative Gene' or 'The Immortal Gene' would have been equally appropriate titles for the book.
5. 5. Hamilton's Rule states a gene for altruism will spread if the cost to the altruist is less than the benefit to the beneficiary devalued by the coefficient of relatedness r.
6. 6. All humans are cousins in hundreds of different ways due to sexual reproduction and the exponential growth of ancestors.
7. 7. From a gene's point of view, each gene has only one parent, one grandparent, etc., unlike an organism which has two parents.
8. 8. Coalescence analysis of a single individual's genome can reconstruct demographic details about datable moments in prehistory.
9. 9. The gene pool of a species is a 'Genetic Book of the Dead' that encodes the environments in which its ancestors survived.