Life is often a matter of gambles, pay-offs, and trade-offs, just like a game. This book takes us on a tour through the games and computer simulations that are helping us to understand the ecology, evolution, and behaviour of real life - from cat and mouse to cellular automata, from the battle of the sexes to artificial life, from poker to the prisoner's dilemma.

No other book explains so well why scientific observations and insights can be structured as the rules of a survival game, and what happens when they are assembled on a computer or in the mind and allowed to run. With a delightful personal style, the author specifically looks at genetics, population ecology, evolution, and animal behaviour and discusses the often surprising outcomes when the name of the game is life.