The other day we were thinking about sex. Not much new there, you may think. But this time we got to wondering how this charming custom got started. How did a little sexless critter split into two new critters, one with an archeolingam, the other a protoyoni? [Primeval reproductive apparatus, for you rustics. –C.A.] Wonderful new body bits, and a new type of cell division, getting up and running to do the nasty in a single generation seems like an awful long shot to us. We need some help with this one, Cecil. –Mike Assels, Adam Steele, Montreal, Canada
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I’ll say. Unfortunately, you’re not going to get much from the world of science, which is not only stumped by how sex got started, but is equally adrift on why we keep doing it. Well, you may say, it beats watching TV. But the truth is that sex is not a very efficient means of reproduction. Not to be crude about it, but we’ve all had evenings where a sizable investment in flowers, lamb chops, and after-shave netted us nothing but a handshake. More to the point, asexual reproduction, such as that engaged in by our parents, dispenses with men, who, if we look at the matter dispassionately, are a waste of biological material. More than one woman has had occasion to think this, of course, and with good reason. What good is a man? He sits around the house, burping, scratching, and eating all the potato chips, and when it comes to reproduction, where is he? Five minutes to do his dirty business and off to bowling. In the same time a sexual woman can produce a male and a female offspring, your, how shall I say, self-gratifying female can produce two little females, that is to say, two little reproductive engines, and thereby propagate the species twice (at least) as fast.
Sex evolved as a mechanism of DNA repair. Harris Bernstein et al (1981) propose that DNA in the early days (and maybe still) was easily damaged, and when sex occurred and two strands combined, you had an opportunity to throw out the bad parts and recombine the rest into one sturdy genetic whole.
