Science in a Fun Way

Personally, Biology isn't one of my favorite subjects of all time, and I don't have a good time trying to understand the small details of it, like what does the mitochondria do or the process of photosynthesis inside a plant cell. I prefer to learn about something that I can relate to and can see the results of, like natural selection or the theory of evolution. This is why I have been able to understand (at times) the explanations in chapter 3 of The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins. 

I have heard, from other people who have read this book, that it is very difficult to understand and that it is very monotonous and boring. I agree with them in the way the book can render you to close your eyes little by little, and later realize you have lost your time because you have not taken in anything from what you have read while you were unconsciously day-dreaming while scanning the words on the page. That could happen. But what is true is that the metaphors and applications of the theories of evolution that Dawkins utilizes causes the reader to be able to relate and understand the text better. The strategies the author uses certainly help me understand the things he writes about, which without these examples, could be just a big mess of letters for all I can see. For example, the analogy where Dawkins uses a boat race team to explain the intricacy of building a competent living thing on page 38 helped me clear up the terms and relationships he had been talking about on the pages previous to the metaphor. 


When I received this book for the first time, I thought it was going to be another novel with a strange form and weird content, like Invisible Cities or A Simple Heart. In fact, the first pages we read in class seemed like it was going to be like I had imagined; apparently, I was wrong. The Selfish Gene is a scientific novel, but it is not written as a scientific report or as if it was the finding of the century. It has a very strange style and tone. As I see it, it is written in order to be read by as many people as can get its hands on it, not by an exclusive community of biologists and geneticists. The author's use of the word "you" creates a relationship with the reader as for him or her to think that Richard Dawkins was right there with the reader explaining the rise of the genes and its survival machines. The book also includes some exercises in which Dawkins involves the reader, which I think is great in helping his audience get a better grasp on what his book is talking about. And lets not mention that it also helps the reader stay awake!