In collaboration with Elena Pasyukova at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, in Moscow, and Trudy Mackay of North Carolina State University at Raleigh, he has been studying a transposable element known as copia.

ECONOMIST: Truly selfish genes

However, a study by Greg Gibson, Ian Dworkin and their colleagues at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, suggests things may be more complicated and subtle than that.

ECONOMIST: Genetics gets more complicated