This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Biologist Richard Dawkins coined the phrase "the selfish gene" with his best-selling book of the same name. "Selfish", however, was perhaps an unfortunate word choice because genes lack their own will and can actually drive altruistic behavior. I explain how in our latest Instant Egghead video:
Correction (5/15/14): This video erroneously states that honeybee workers share 75 percent of their genetic information. Because the queen bee mates with multiple drones, however, their genetic relatedness is actually 25 to 40 percent.
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More to explore:
Selfish Genes Also Must Cooperate (Scientific American Blog Network)
Why We Help the Evolution of Cooperation [Preview] (Scientific American)
Video Credits:
Produced, edited & written by Eric R. Olson
Filmed by Joss Fong
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