Why We Have Sex: It's Cleansing

LiveScience.com ^ | 3/2/06 | Ker Than

[commish]

HOw about this hypothesis - Sex has survived for so long because it feels so damn good!!!!

[Warren_Piece]

"In charge?"

You got that right.

[razoroccam]

Article has several flaws:
1. Sexual reprodution has no survival advantage over non-sexual reprodution. In fact, in a desert, the cactus may be the best survivor.
2. The article bases its 'coup-de-grace' (spelling?) on a computer model. A computer model is only as good as the program. And do any of us REALLY know all the variables that go into this complex phenomenon, so as to be able to put it into a program?

[Howlin]

http://www.forbes.com/2003/10/08/cz_af_1008health_print.html

[Millee]

And here I thought you pinged me to this because my pic finally made it through. Sigh..

[Larry Lucido]

Well, I did make sure I was 20 miles away from you when I posted.

[SirChas]

I guess we'll need a shower after this thread gets going. ;)

Here is a shower mate for you!

[SE Mom]

"but the dirty work of evolution is to get rid of bad mutations, and that's where sex seems to play a role."

---

Now if THAT doesn't get you in the mood...

[r9etb]

Correction. ... might have been designed as a way ...

Certainly the language of the explanation in the article is more appropriate to the actions of a designer than to a set of natural processes.

[Mike Bates]

I thought that was supposed to be a secret, but if not. . . .

[acad1228]

I didn't know women could have organisms.

[BJClinton]

I think you're short-changing asexual reproduction.

Does it give you hairy palms and make you go blind?

[Inspectorette]

Whaa? Up to 52 posts, and nobody's pinged Laz??

[Dan(9698)]

...sex isn't just happening between married people

I noticed, but the article said that it concentrates mutation into single individuals.

Since they are a mutation, they should stay single so the rest of the mutations will concentrate in them.

Not my theory, that is what the article says.

[PatrickHenry]

I will have none of this filth! (Besides, the thread's already too long gone for deploying the ping list.)

[Southack]

"The new work could help test a hypothesis first proposed nearly 20 years ago, stating that sex evolved as a way to purge harmful mutations from a population."

Sex didn't evolve; it's designed behavior. It promotes cooperation and self-sacrifice.

Cacti and starfish don't volunteer to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their clones...but some mates in higher species will.

[Issaquahking]

Check again...Click here

[Bender2]

So... You think I just have all these towel wearing girls at my pad cloned... So I can have my way with them all the time?

Ridiculous... Completely... Ridiculous... Completely... Ridiculous... Completely... Ridiculous... Completely... Ridiculous... Completely... Ridiculous... Completely...

The times change, but The New York Slimes just stays the same...

[dearolddad]

What can I say? We love to be clean!

I'm so old I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty.

[dearolddad]

HOw about this hypothesis - Sex has survived for so long because it feels so damn good!!!!
Sex makes me feel better all over than any place else!