From Jon Arch, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK
I remember seeing Richard Dawkins and Desmond Morris chatting during drinks breaks in the Oxford zoology department in the early 1970s. I was a graduate student. I accepted the premise of The Selfish Gene when it was published in 1976, but as I learned more, I became increasingly sceptical. Where in our DNA does a gene begin and end? How can cooperative behaviour between genes or species be explained by selfish genes? I even had a letter published in Â鶹´«Ã½ on the latter subject. Fifty years on, I am grateful to Rowan Hooper’s article, which explains how Dawkins has addressed these doubts, though not all are convinced (23 May, p 32).
