Universal Darwinism

It was Richard Dawkins that first recognized the universality of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Evolution requires only three main features: variation, selection and heredity. If there is a replicator that makes imperfect copies of itself only some of which survive, then evolution simply must occur. Dawkins illustrated this universality by comparing genetic evolution to the evolution of ideas and imitations. For the latter he coined the word "meme". Meme, an element of a culture that may be considered to be passed on by non-genetic means, esp. imitation (Oxford English Dictionary).

"Three problems with memes´ is that we do not know what memes are made of or where they reside. Memes have not yet found their Watson and Crick; they even lack their Mendel. Where genes are to be found in precise locations on chromosomes, memes presumably exist in brains, and we have even less chance of seeing one than of seeing a gene.", Richard Dawkins.

We show empirically that gene names, or more generally, that concepts of genes are exposed to a selective process by the scientific community, just as their physical counterparts in the cell are selected by nature.