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The Genetic Book of the Dead

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The Genetic Book of the Dead

By: Richard Dawkins, Jana Lenzová - illustrator
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
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About this listen

From one of the world’s great science writers, a book that explores the deepest principles of evolutionary history.

In this groundbreaking approach to the evolution of all life, Richard Dawkins shows how the body, behaviour, and genes of every living creature can be read as a book – an archive of the worlds of its ancestors. A perfectly camouflaged desert lizard has a desiccated landscape of sand and stones ‘painted’ on its back. Its skin can be read as a description of ancient deserts in which its ancestors survived – and, before that, of the worlds of its more remote ancestors: a genetic book of the dead.

But such descriptions are more than skin-deep. The fine chisels of Darwinian natural selection carve their way through the very warp and woof of the body, into every biochemical nook and corner, into every cell of every living creature. A zoologist of the future, presented with a hitherto-unknown animal, will be able to reconstruct the worlds that shaped its ancestors, to read its unique ‘book of the dead’.

The book is filled with fascinating examples of the power of Darwinian natural selection to build exquisite perfection, paradoxically accompanied by what look like gross blunders. Along the way, Dawkins dismantles influential criticisms of the ‘gene’s-eye-view’ of life. And, to end with a provocative sting in the tail, the author asks there is a sense in which all our ‘own’ genes can be seen as a gigantic colony of cooperating viruses?

From the author of The Selfish Gene and The Ancestor’s Tale is a revolutionary, rich book that unlocks the door to an ancient past, seen through wholly new eyes.

©2024 Richard Dawkins (P)2024 Head of Zeus
Animals Evolution Genetics Nature & Ecology Psychology
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Dawkins is simply fantastic

Just finished this fantastic book & let me say that it’s a brilliant addition to the Dawkins collection. It’s up there with the Selfish Gene & the Blind Watchmaker. Trying to pick out key parts that I found enjoyable wont do it justice as there’s simply too many topics covered, but if you’re interested in learning about genetics & Darwinian evolution in an interesting, humorous & eloquent way then this work is it.

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Lighting the path

Listening to the author provides depth the printed words can’t and it’s a privilege to be able to do so anytime on demand.
Quite what SOF will make of it I couldn’t say but my ears lapped up the stuff and were thoroughly enriched by it.
I love the repetition of key themes and words from sciences original meme coder and I will take palimpsest with me in my future hand luggage.
It’s all good stuff this.
Avoid hesitation.

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Beautiful swan song

If you enjoy your Dawkins, this is everything you could ever ask for. A fitting encapsulation of the man's life work, written beautifullly as always.

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Simply fascinating.

Simply fascinating. A lot to take on board but you can jump
Around and still learn and enjoy as it always related in serial.

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Superb!

Richard Dawkins delivers another outstanding book. I was fascinated from the start, with this work complementing and building on previous titles. Highly recommended!

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Hard to concentrate on such boring details

Undoubtedly, he is a very intelligent man. Has he written an interesting and engaging book here? Absolutely not. It was very hard for me to listen to parts of this book and actually take it in. I often found myself thinking about other things because parts seems rather irrelevant or were boring to listen to.

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if only the editor applied the gene view theory

wonderful thinking and explanations. pity the audible version is not sufficient to survive. nice addition to the range of formats but does not have a pdf attached to reference names and notes is an end road for this type of books and format

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