The Selfish Gene By Richard Dawkins Review by Grace Olson, Katie Raffaini, Shasta Parker, and Sasha Urban The Selfish Gene is a mentally stimulating, nonfiction book about Richard Dawkin’s ideas of evolution. In the book, Richard Dawkins builds on the theory of adaptation and naturalselection. He uses the term “selfish gene” as a way of expressing the gene-centered view of evolution. The main idea of the book is evolution through genes opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group. Dawkins thinks that DNA sequences spread by creating copies ofthemselves inside of the genome. Dawkins supported Darwin's Theory of Evolution, specificallyhis theory of survival of the fittest. He believes the theory that organisms adapt through natural selection. Another idea of Dawkin's was that DNA do not specifically contribute to the reproductive success, but the organisms as a whole do. He said that the goal of all organisms is to maximizethe number of their decedents. Richard Dawkins stated that you can make inferences about anorganism based off of the environment that they live in. He changed the views of many scientists about evolution and natural selection. After reading the entirety of the book, we felt indifferent about the novel. It was ratherdull, and heavy with confusing and unnecessary vocabulary. While looking for extra informationabout his theories, we came across a book that was entitled, “Die, Selfish Gene, Die” thatopposed all of Dawkins’ theories and criticised his book. Even though we didn’t exactly enjoythe book, we did not feel so negatively against it. For example, we thought the use of metaphors was a clever way to make the book easier to understand and much more interesting to read. Over all, this book was very intriguing, and we learned a great deal of information about evolution, specifically Richard Dawkins' perception of it. We learned how evolution is passeddown through genes, natural selection, and adaptation. It was very difficult to follow, but his use of metaphors made it a little bit easier to understand.
Transitional Species Video
Evolution Unit Reflection
From this unit, I learned a great deal about evolution. I learned the changes that I undertook, making me who I am. I learned the sequence of evolution for a variety of animals, and I learned how evolution actually works. I enjoyed creating my transitional species and creating the video. Watching the videos about evolution gave me a different perspective, and helped me to understand evolution even better. I learned the our sequence of evolution, which goes as follows: fish, to amphibians, to reptiles, to birds, to the mammals that we are today.