The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up

When Richard Dawkins’s first blockbuster book was published half a century ago, few genes had ever been sequenced or studied in detail. Yet the book’s gene-centred view of evolution still has much to teach us in today’s genetic age Facebook / Meta Twitter / X icon Linkedin Reddit Email When The Selfish Gene was published in 1976, The New York Times said it was “the kind of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”. Few popular science books have had such an impact.

As Richard Dawkins writes in the epilogue to the 50th anniversary edition, it’s rare enough for a book to be in press 50 years later, let alone that the author is still around to write an update about it. There is a strong case that The Selfish Gene has had the biggest influence on our understanding of evolution of any book since Charles Darwin ’s On the Origin of Species . It showed, in irresistible prose, how everything we see in biology can be explained by a gene-centred view of life. Yet when it was first published, only a small number of genes had been sequenced and we didn’t even know how many we had or shared with other species. So, half a century on, with the “selfish gene” metaphor still very current, I wanted to find out if it is still a useful way to understand evolution. Dawkins’s central point is that natural selection works to increase the number of “replicators” in a population. By replicators, he means genes made of stretches of DNA. The replicators build “vehicles” for themselves, machines that help them survive and spread. “A monkey is a machine that preserves genes up trees, a fish is a machine that preserves genes in the water,” Dawkins wrote. While we (and monkeys and fish) live for only a few years or decades, the genes we carry live for perhaps millions of years. Or as Dawkins once expressed it, in limerick form: This is why he had considered a suggestion to call his book The Immortal Gene . Dawkins wasn’t the originator of this gene’s-eye view of evolution – that emerged from the researchers behind the “modern synthesis” that married Darwin’s ideas with those of genetics .

Key points

• As Richard Dawkins writes in the epilogue to the 50th anniversary edition, it’s rare enough for a book to be in press 50 years later, let alone that the author is still around to write an update ab…
• There is a strong case that The Selfish Gene has had the biggest influence on our understanding of evolution of any book since Charles Darwin ’s On the Origin of Species .
• It showed, in irresistible prose, how everything we see in biology can be explained by a gene-centred view of life.
• Yet when it was first published, only a small number of genes had been sequenced and we didn’t even know how many we had or shared with other species.
• So, half a century on, with the “selfish gene” metaphor still very current, I wanted to find out if it is still a useful way to understand evolution.