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from the never-used-that-excuse-before dept.
Why does sex exist when organisms that clone themselves use less time and energy, and do not need a mate to produce offspring? Researchers at the University of Stirling aiming to answer this age-old question have discovered that sex can help the next generation resist infection.
Populations that clone themselves are entirely female and do not need sex to reproduce. As sex requires males, and males do not produce offspring themselves, an entirely clonal population should always reproduce faster than a sexual one.
Yet while some animal and plant species can reproduce without sex, such as komodo dragons, starfish and bananas, sex is still the dominant mode of reproduction in the natural world.
Scientists know that sex allows genes to mix, allowing populations to quickly evolve and adapt to changing environments, including rapidly evolving parasites.
However, for sex to beat cloning as a reproduction strategy, there must be large-scale benefits that make a difference to the next generation. The theory has been difficulty to test as most organisms are either wholly sexual or clonal so cannot be compared easily.
A team of experts from the University of Stirling have taken an innovative approach to test the costs and benefits of sex. Using an organism that can reproduce both ways, the waterflea, researchers found sexually produced offspring were more than twice as resistant to infectious disease as their clonal sisters.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday December 22 2016, @08:15PM
Like how the parasites running the EU want a homogeneous race of mixed untermensch to quickly adapt to globalist slavery, using murderous Islamic savages as forced breeding stock?
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 22 2016, @08:24PM
Yes, Eth, we all realize what sort of fantasy you would need to imagine to be able to procreate, physically. Lucky for our gene pool it still requires a willing partner, though.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 22 2016, @08:26PM
Eth, are you okay? Most of your output over the last couple of weeks has been really substandard. It's missing that "this is an obvious troll" factor. Are you feeling sick, or did you break the number one rule of drug dealing and start sampling the merchandise?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @09:37PM
You are completely incoherent - you need more ethanol, not that methanol bath liquids stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @07:55PM
You mean using the europeans as forced breeding stock as the hairy islamic apes rape the beautiful european women. Never mind the stupid European progressive feminists who think its progressive and edgy to jump on those hairy things. Disgusting.