In 1976 the British ethologist Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene, a book on evolution that builds upon the theories of adaptation and natural selection. The Selfish Gene Theory argues that natural selection does not intend to secure the survival of a community or species, but rather that of the individual, which is the actual vehicle for its genes. In his argumentation, he presents organisms as fundamentally simple survival machines (despite being seemingly purposive) and asserts that altruistic behaviour only occurs when groups are formed for genetically selfish reasons that ensure the survival of species and societies. Bengtsson approaches this subject by depicting an egg and a fowl with an anthropomorphic head which are separated by a chromosome in its metaphase, meaning it is ready to duplicate itself. Reflecting on the age long dilemma about which came first, the chicken or the egg, Samuel Butler famously said: “Chicken is an egg’s way of making another egg”. While Butler was not aware of genes as they had not been discovered yet, this reflection and its visual representation incapsulates the logic of Richard Dawkins’ revolutionary theory of the Selfish Gene for the artist.