Doesn’t stick to its area of expertise

First, I wanted to give 3 stars, because it was very useful to practice the English terms (the more extensive lecture I attended was in German).

But unfortunately in the last chapter, the book revealed a profound lack of understanding for the selfish gene concept put forward by Richard Dawkins.
Since selfish genes are primarily about genetics, selection, behavior and evolution, it is inconsiderate of the readers’ time to put it in a physiology ‘very short introduction’ book.
I could’ve accepted that the author wanted to inspire readers to move on to this truly fascinating subject for their next book, but his words were actually rather critical of Dawkins’ theory.
It actually seemed like the author had a personal interest to find an argument against Dawkins’ theory. However, he could not find a valid one. Instead, he displayed his own misinterpretation.
(E.g. He deems selfish a metaphor and wrongly says that the theory claims biology is hyper-competitive at *all* levels.)
This section, as well as others, was not neutrally phrased but rather emotionally and with a personal evaluation that is not becoming of a basic science book.

The musings on the reasons for the sexual cycle length in humans and why humans are polyestrous with spontaneous ovulations and menses in the first place are outdated.

Also, head size is no longer considered the reason for human offspring being born relatively early compared to other mammals. (Since wider hips have been shown to be of no disadvantage for e.g. walking, selection pressure for wider pelvises permitting a later birth would’ve been ok. Nowadays, energy requirements are often used as explanation for the ‘premature’ birth.)

I suggest readers take all neurobiological aspects in this book and the section on reproduction with a grain of salt and read up on those topics in more recent publications. And obviously, I recommend ‘The Selfish Gene’ and ‘The Extended Phenotype’ for demanding reads to gain clarity about selfish genes.

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