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The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science) (Paperback)

by Richard Dawkins (Author), Daniel Dennett (Contributor) "This is a work of unabashed advocacy ..." (more)

4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; 2nd Revised edition edition (4 Mar 1999)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0192880519
ISBN-13: 978-0192880512
Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,448 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#1 in Books > Science & Nature > Reference > Evolution
#2 in Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Biology > Genetics > Genomics
#2 in Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Genetics

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Product Description

John Maynard Smith, LRB

"The Extended Phenotype is a sequel to The Selfish Gene ... he writes so clearly it could be understood by anyone prepared to make the effort"

Review

The Extended Phenotype is a sequel to The Selfish Gene ... he writes so clearly it could be understood by anyone prepared to make the effort (John Maynard Smith, LRB )

This entertaining and thought-provoking book is an excellent illustration of why the study of evolution is in such an exciting ferment these days. (Science )

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First Sentence
This is a work of unabashed advocacy. Read the first page

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	60% buy the item featured on this page: The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science) 4.1 out of 5 stars (13) �5.81
	18% buy The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition 4.3 out of 5 stars (89) �5.76
	9% buy The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution 4.5 out of 5 stars (88) �9.00
	8% buy The Blind Watchmaker 4.2 out of 5 stars (84) �5.97

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

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4.1 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scholarly exposition of "the long reach of the gene"., 13 Jun 2004

By	Geoff Mather (Cheshire, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Firstly in reference to another review below, I think it is mean-spirited to give a negative review to a book you confess not to be capable of understanding!

This book was marketed as the sequel to The Selfish Gene, and chronologically it certainly was. However, the book is far more scholarly in its approach and for that reason is different in tone from Dawkins' other major works. Dawkins states at the outset that he is writing primarily for the professional biologist, but that anyone who makes the effort may understand and enjoy the work (I paraphrase).

This is true. With occasional reference to the helpful and educational glossary provided at the back of the book, I found it easy to make progress, to enjoy and to follow the arguments presented. I highly recommend this to all professionals, and to all others who may have read Dawkins' other works and feel ready to go deeper.

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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting but challenging read, 8 Dec 2004

By	Sally-Anne "mynameissally" (Leicestershire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

"The Extended Phenotype" is the 4th and most demanding of Richard Dawkins' books that I've read. I hadn't realized that it was aimed mainly at his professional colleagues so was surprised at the amount of concentration, hard thinking and puzzled head scratching required to work through it. But what a glow of satisfaction: to finish such a challenging book, feeling that most of it has made sense to me. Like his other books (the ones I've read: "The Selfish Gene", "The Blind Watchmaker" and "Unweaving The Rainbow"), it's beautifully clearly written, with most of the more esoteric terms defined in the glossary at the back of the book. Not all of the terms could be found there however and nor were many of those to be found in an ordinary dictionary. The book is not so self-contained as those aimed at the more 'popular science' end of the market - the ones that you can read from cover to cover without reaching for a dictionary or other source of clarification. That's why I can only claim to have understood *most* rather than *all* of the book.

This book follows on from "The Selfish Gene" and in it, Dawkins argues that the phonotypic effects of genes do not stop at the limits of the organisms that carry them. He suggests, for example, that the phenotypic expression of beaver genes stretch right to the edges of the lakes formed by their dams and the genes of some parasites are expressed in their hosts. So a snail might behave in a manner that puts itself in harm's way because the fluke living inside it has, somehow, managed to modify the snail's behaviour for its own ends - say to continue its life cycle inside one of the snail's predators. That is to say, the snail's behaviour is maximizing the survival of fluke genes rather than snail genes. He puts it very succinctly: 'an animal's behaviour tends to maximize the survival of the genes "for" that behaviour, whether or not those genes happen to be in the body of the particular animal performing it.' There are plenty of other fascinating examples of this sort. There are chapters covering such intriguing areas as evolutionary 'arms races', 'outlaw' genes and 'jumping' genes. Good use is made of thought experiments to help to figure out how and why certain adaptations might have evolved. 'Outlaw' genes for instance, might try to cheat the system to get themselves replicated more than their alleles, so how can the rest of the genome fight back? I particularly liked the idea of the 'green-beard effect' whereby genes might make the organism (not necessarily a man) carrying them recognisable to other organisms carrying that gene so that all the organisms carrying the 'green beard' gene would be altruistic towards each other but not to non-green-bearded organisms.

It's not the usual easy read. As the author points out, 'this book ... assumes that the reader has professional knowledge of evolutionary biology and its technical terms'. However, it's well worth the effort of struggling with it if you're interested in evolution and Richard Dawkins ideas about how it all works. If you've read "The Selfish Gene" and found it riveting, you'll probably enjoy this too.

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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking evolution one step further, 29 Feb 2000

By	Kristijan Secan (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What happens (evolutionary speaking) after genes surround themselves with enough flesh and bone to support their replication ? Well, Dawkins tries to answer that in this brilliant sequel to Selfish Gene. The arguments are well presented and the whole book is written in clear language. You don't have to be a geneticist to understand the book. So, if you've read Selfish Gene you should add Extended Phenotype to your collection. If not, first buy Selfish Gene, read it until it makes sense and then proceed to this book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful follow-up to "The Selfish Gene"
Although this book is an interesting read by itself, I strongly advise anyone aiming to go for it to read "The Selfish Gene" beforehand. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Alexandra Zaharia

3.0 out of 5 stars Was it worth the effort?
As an undergraduate biologist, this seemed to be an obvious choice for reading material - and there are some fabulous examples used to illustrate the main arguements, and his... Read more

Published 13 days ago by Amy

3.0 out of 5 stars for the expert only
The book is without doubt written for the professional biologist working in that particular field. Even though I am a natural scientist (geology), I was unable to understand the... Read more

Published 4 months ago by Juergen Schlaf

5.0 out of 5 stars A great very accessible book on evolution
I read this one after the 30th anniversary of The Selfish Gene, and though Dawkins states in his intro that he regards this as his best work, I personally prefer the slightly... Read more

Published 20 months ago by David Hampson

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult but eminently worthwhile
This is a long and difficult book, although not as long and difficult as it might be if it had been written by somebody without Richard Dawkins' gift for clarity of thought and... Read more

Published on 29 Dec 2006 by Dennis Littrell

3.0 out of 5 stars Warning: very different from The Selfish Gene
This summary is primarily aimed as a warning to readers of the Selfish Gene and other books by Dawmins who are expecting more elaboration on the same theme. Read more

Published on 11 Mar 2006

5.0 out of 5 stars The essentials of life's story
Biodiversity is more than a buzzword for ecologists. Variation gives life its grandeur, and Richard Dawkins gives us a description of the workings of variation. Read more

Published on 15 Aug 2005 by Stephen A. Haines

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent as always
As much as I love all Dawkins' books, this is probably my favourite. It explains how genes are not content to build organisms to ride around in - they also build structures like... Read more

Published on 2 Aug 2005 by R. A. Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth it
They weren't kidding when they said that this book is a bit more scholarly than The Selfish Gene. But in a good way: you can be sure that this is really what Dawkins wanted to say... Read more

Published on 10 Jan 2005 by danny4456

1.0 out of 5 stars The Extended Phenotype
No doubt a scholarly book but, I agree with Daniel Dennett who wrote the afterword, it is 'for the professional biologist' of which I am not!

Published on 3 Jan 2004 by Mr Vivian Hony

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