What is chemistry's answer to the Selfish Gene or Brief History of Time?

I do not know that much about chemistry, and if I know anything about biology or physics it is from either popular science books such as the Selfish Gene or Brief History of Time, or from TV documentaries and sci-fi novels. It also seems that biology and physics have a number of public intellectuals such as Dawkins, Hawking, Tegmark, Krauss, Gould and various others, but off-hand I cannot think of any chemistry intellectuals. Perhaps the closest I have is Primo Levi whose periodic table I have read, but I would be interested in other suggestions either of books, lectures, TV programs/documentaries, novels or newspaper articles.