Postcards From The Hedge

I am sure that many readers have already concluded that I do not understand the role of sex in either organic or biotic evolution. At least I can claim, on the basis of the conflicting views in the recent literature, the consolation of abundant company. - George C. Williams, Sex and Evolution, 1975    What's sex all about? This question has been exercising biologists since well before Williams's time, but in the 1970's, with the rise of ‘ gene-centrism ’ and the related controversy over group selection , a succession of prominent authors grappled with the problem, trying to fit it with current evolutionary theory to no-one's particular satisfaction. Males were deemed an impediment to a female's efforts to maximise her reproductive output, time wasted on these feckless types resulting in her only passing on 50% of her genes per offspring. From the perspective of a ‘selfish gene', meanwhile, getting into every offspring seems a preferable fate to on...