Genes Own and Survive Us

Every life form protects and defends property: the gene is wrapped in DNA, DNA is walled in a nucleus, the cell is skinned by a membrane, and the family is housed. Ownership is not an invention of law; it is an instruction written into living matter.

• —Describe the nested boundaries that protect a replicator.
• —Explain why the gene, not the organism, is the unit that persists.
• —Show that cells cooperate — and that cooperation needs a boundary first.