The Genetic Book of the Dead
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The Genetic Book of the Dead
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Narrated by:
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Richard Dawkins
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.
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What listeners say about The Genetic Book of the Dead
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-12-24
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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- A Customer
- 18-10-24
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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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Lewis Walker
- 20-10-24
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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Andy Sparkes
- 27-11-24
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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- dan seago
- 20-03-25
Dawkins is god.
If you’re going to worship anything, make it Dawkins. He makes incredibly complex scientific thinking into something ordinary people can understand.
This book is as good as every other he has written.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- C. Gale
- 15-12-24
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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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- Brothwell Family
- 22-12-24
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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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-12-24
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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2 people found this helpful