A controversial new theory argues that genes are cooperative rather than selfish (Image: Phanie Agency / Rex Features)
IS NATURE red in tooth and claw, a bleak battlefield where organisms struggle for existence, conniving and cheating their way to any advantage they can get? Most biologists would say yes, but in The Genial Gene, passionately argues the opposite. The world, she claims, is a kinder, gentler place marked by cooperation and mutual affection.
In particular, Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford University in California, takes issue with , the portion of evolutionary theory that seeks to…
