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biography
| name: |
Dawkins, (Clinton) Richard
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1941– )
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| biography:
| British zoologist, born in Nairobi, Kenya. His family returned to England in 1949, where he studied zoology at Oxford. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley (1967–70) then returned to Oxford. His work on animal behaviour and genetics emphasizes that apparently selfish behaviour is designed to ensure survival of the gene, apparently above that of the carrier (The Selfish Gene, 1976), and this and wider views on behaviour and evolution have been developed in The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and other works. He introduced the concept of a cultural analogue of the gene, the meme, to capture the notion that some ideas seem to take on a life of their own within society, even affecting the course of evolution. One of the most successful popularizers of his subject, he became Charles Simonyi professor of public understanding of science at Oxford in 1995. He remains a controversial media figure, known as much for his aggressive atheism as for his scientific views on evolution. |
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