We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.

Huxley who was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's evolutionary ideas. The Extended Phenotype (1982) in which he describes natural selection as "the process whereby replicators out-propagate each other". Lewontin.

He is an emeritus fellow of New College Oxford and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Instead he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker. He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design.