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Nature 444, 683 (7 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/444683a; Published online 6 December 2006

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One good deed

Oliver Curry1

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Can a simple equation explain the development of altruism?

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness

by Lee Alan Dugatkin

Princeton University Press: 2006. 224 pp. $24.95, £15.95

The evolutionary explanation of altruism will surely come to be seen as one of the major breakthroughs of twentieth-century science. At first, the problem of altruism seemed insurmountable: how could natural selection favour the tendency to help others?