The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition (Oxford Landmark Science) — The Play by Nature

1. 1. The book presents a new face of evolution, emphasizing game-theoretic aspects of social behavior, which E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology hardly mentioned.
2. 2. Dawkins argues that genes are the primary units of selection, and organisms are survival machines for their genes.
3. 3. The book explains why in most fish species the male guards eggs and young, contrary to other animals, due to a trivial detail of which sex releases gametes first.
4. 4. Females of monogamous bird species lay smaller clutches than those of polygamous species, which Dawkins explains using the concept of stability against male exploitation.
5. 5. Dawkins coins the term 'meme' for the cultural equivalent of a gene, predicting it will become common in biology and everyday speech.
6. 6. The book successfully presents recondite mathematical themes of evolutionary thought in simple, untechnical English, making it accessible to a broad audience.