Why is sex such a success despite its many downsides? (Image: Christian Steinhausen/Getty
THERE’S no way sex could ever be considered a good solution for reproduction among organisms like us- eukaryotes with complex information contained within membraned cells. After all, the exponential growth of a population reproducing asexually seriously outcompetes any sexual strategy: it doubles with each generation, while a sexual population has to bear the cost of males.
Most of the supposed advantages of sexual strategies stem from the idea that sexual reproduction enlarges the genetic variation in the lineages on which it operates. Mutation-based models argue that sexual…
