Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This work explores one of life's great conundrums - why did sex evolve as a way species reproduce? Providing a mix of narrative and science, Richard Michod surveys this topic and presents his own thesis that explains why sex evolved.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

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. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

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. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Book Review

Why sex? It's for repair, stupid. Michod (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology/Univ. of Arizona) says that sex is not for diversity in the gene pool (the conventional wisdom), but rather to repair genetic damage and rid the genome of unwanted mutations. Remember all that business you learned in biology about sexual division (meiosis), that complicated process by which chromosomes split various times, then come together at fertilization to produce an offspring with genes from all four grandparents? Well, that certainly makes for diversity, argues Michod, but it's secondary to keeping the gene lineage pure: That chromosome activity can repair damage. In defense of this provocative idea, the author reviews the course of evolution from asexual and sexual reproduction in single cells on to complex organisms, explaining the increasingly sophisticated means by which DNA replication is controlled and mistakes are corrected. Using mathematical models and examples drawn from nature he illustrates the high cost of sex (energy consumed in searching and wooing, chance of disease, etc.) to demonstrate that sex must be doing something vital. That something turns out to be preserving the genome. Shades of Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, 1977): Sex is not for the pleasure of thee and me, it's just the genes' way not only of making other genes but of making sure those genes are clean. Michod attempts to clarify by way of diagrams and chapter notes that may challenge the general reader, as does his soaring last chapter, in which he argues for both the unity of life and the distinctiveness of species. No doubt many will respond that there must be more to sex than repair, and some will raise the issue of such phenomena as transduction in bacteria and viral infection as ways in which nature mixes genomes for better or worse. But Michod's ideas surely merits a hearing. Sure to spark a lively debate.