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Welcome to my Gemini capsule. I am a Science and Physics teacher from Christchurch, New Zealand who writes code in his spare time, but would really rather be outside doing almost any type of sport! 🏔 🏃♂️ 🎿 🛶 🚴♂️ 🧗 🧘♂️
As a Science teacher this book is quite interesting, even though I only teach genetics to a basic level in Years 9-11 (NZ). We take it as a given that animals can be naturally selected for their influence of others (the extended phenotype) although I never specifically state this when teaching.
It was also really interesting to think of how populations of predator/prey (or others) can be stable depending on their type of population. The introduction of The Prisoner\'s Dilemma was great and looking into the different ways they can act was also enlightening. I particularly liked the example of German and British soldiers fratenizing (cooperating) instead of fighting as an example of this.
In Science at school we definitely still think of the organism (the vehicle) as the thing that natural selection works upon, when instead it is actually the individual genes themselves. This is something that I will bear in mind with my future teaching - although I think it might be a technicality which would be confusing at such an early stage of education.
All in all, a good read! It's not as easy to read as lots of pop sci books, but its not exactly challenging either. Just take your time and try absorb it!
Future Reading: The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins.
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