Eros And Evolution: A Natural Philosophy Of Sex - Softcover

Michod, Richard

9780201442328: Eros And Evolution: A Natural Philosophy Of Sex

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201442329 ISBN 13: 9780201442328

Publisher: Basic Books, 1996

A bee lands on a blossom, a stag rears back his head in bellowing, a human couple lies exhausted in passionate embrace. The flower, the deer, the human, even the unseen virus - they all must have sex. But why? When we think of sex, we may think of the pleasure and pain it causes us. But there is a more fundamental problem of sex. It is the unresolved question of why sex exists at all. What are the consequences of sex that make it so important to us and so widespread in nature? The answer to this question lies not in our own attitudes and feelings about sex, but deep in our evolutionary past. Why did sex evolve as the means for reproduction for many species? Sex requires a huge commitment of time, energy, and resources, and it can even be physically dangerous. Sex is not the only path to reproduction - simple life forms do not practice sexual mating; offspring are produced by simple cell division. There are examples of higher life forms that practice asexual reproduction, in which the female reproduces alone. "Why sex?" is a question that was first raised by Charles Darwin in his Origin of the Species, and the answer has eluded biologists for over a century. In Eros and Evolution Richard Michod, a leading evolutionary biologist, begins his exploration into this question by pointing out the fatal flaws in the widely accepted "variation view, " that sex is necessary for producing more diverse offspring than could be produced asexually. Chief among those flaws is the fact that sex undoes what it creates, producing a beneficial new combination of genes in one generation only to break it apart in the next. Michod argues that genetic variation and reproduction of organisms are side effects butnot the sole purpose of sex. According to his revolutionary theory, sex has a more far-reaching mission: to repair and overcome the genetic errorsdamages and mutations - that threaten life. With lucid explanations and intriguing excursions into our evolutionary past, this book sh

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From Library Journal:

Through genetic research, evolutionary biologist Michod has reconfigured Plato's idea that sex exists for renewal and repair and Freud's use of Plato to give substance to his Eros. The result is a well-crafted, plausible, and simple explanation for the evolution and maintenance of sex: "accomplishing gene repair while coping with the deleterious effects of homozygosity." The narration concentrates on the origin of sex in bacteria and other so-called simple organisms. Despite some effective analogies to automobile maintenance, the complicated genetics and mathematical models make many arguments difficult to follow. In addition, Michod's style is somewhat pedantic, and his mechanistic construction and meticulous documentation can be dry. Matt Ridley's The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (LJ 1/94) provides convincing support for another theory on the evolution of sex, dismissed by Michod. However, scientists clearly disagree on this issue, and Ridley's ability to synthesize widely diverse literature, lucid prose, and discussions of human behavior provide an excellent base from which to tackle Michod's work.
Constance Rinaldo, Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, N.H.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Why should sex exist at all, given the enormous time, energy and resources required to find and keep mates, the risks of infectious diseases and the millennia of nonsexual forms of reproduction that serve sponges, bacteria, viruses, some lizards, etc.? Unlike other scientists who tout the benefits of genetic diversity, Michod argues that sex evolved as an elaborate system to overcome and eliminate genetic errors-both damage and mutations-that threaten life. His discussion of the DNA mechanisms underlying these processes is sometimes technical, yet this elegantly written, thought-provoking narrative will intrigue nonspecialists and specialists alike. Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, Michod stresses that because of sexual reproduction, organisms are of fleeting existence, each born unique and soon to die, each a temporary repository of genetic information that is shaped by evolution. He also uses computer modeling to support his thesis that sexual reproduction helps explain the emergence of distinct species, a phenomenon that baffled Darwin. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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