# reader_01_nature_memetic **Opening (not a real abstract):** This multiauthored book is a welcome attempt to bring together arguments for and against the meme concept. It begins with the admirable sentiment that if the meme idea is to flourish, it should do so regardless of its intuitive appeal but instead based upon sound scientific reasons. The question of what exactly memetics is, or should be, is risky to address without lengthy caveats and explanations. To me, memetics conceptualizes culture as being at least partly constructed from socially transmitted units of information, or ‘memes’. Memetics argues that some elements of culture can be broken down into discrete, replicating packages of information and, as such, memes are likely to undergo evolutionary processes. Blackmore, a meme advocate, argues that such considerations lead to the idea of the ‘selfish meme’ (sensu Dawkins1),