The Bilogical Advantage of Two Sexes

Oct 31 2007

If a single parent cell simply divides into two new cells, and they split into two and all the new individuals also reproduce by division, each of the progeny in this species is an exact or almost exact duplicate of the original parent. If some adverse environmental influence such as drought or extreme cold comes along and the organism is especially susceptible to it, the whole species will be wiped out. However, if elements from two separate parent cells fuse and this new combination of genetic materials then divides, the progeny is never an exact duplicate of either parent, but has some characteristics of both. When this progeny mates with a similar organism from a set of different parents, still greater variation results. These variations enhance survival and development of a species.

The Nature of Sexuality

Dr. William H. Masters and Ms. Virginia E. Johnson, in their excellent studies of human sexual behavior, underscored the fact that sexual difficulties among human beings are rarely caused by physical diseases, but are ordinarily psychological in origin. That is why it is so important that adolescents be introduced to the miracle of sexual reproduction in a sensitive, intelligent fashion. The Masters-Johnson study proves that it is dangerous to create an aura of sin, dirt, and taboo around human sexual activity. Sexuality should be viewed as a beautiful gift which, when used intelligently with freedom, joy, and consideration, greatly enriches all facts of life.

Libido

The Bilogical Advantage of Two Sexes The ageless, unhurried process of evolution has granted animals immense protection by making vital functions pleasurable. It is pleasant to eat, drink, void, defecate, sleep and impregnate or be impregnated. This pleasure in sex is termed libido. Libido is created by body chemicals known as sex hormones. Reproduction and sexual pleasure are so closely intertwined that the sex cells that unite to form the embryo and the sex hormones that create the appetite for mating in each of the sexual partners are produced in one and the same organ, the ovary of the female and the testis of the male.

Mating among mammals may be restricted to a single annual season, as in deer, bears, and seals, or it may take place in isolated recurrent estrus periods (mating periods), as in cats, dogs, and the domesticated rodent. Still a third type of sexual rhythm is demonstrated by the primates humans, apes, and monkeys, a willingness to mate at all times without restriction of season or estrus period, though, to be sure, with fluctuations of desire, particularly on the part of the female.

You Were A Long Shot

When babies grow up to be winners of marathons or authors of great books, they are considered to have done so in part as a result of chance. Yet in none of these happenings does chance play so large a part as in the miracle of child birth. The selection of parents is most fortuitous, if your father and mother had not been who they were, you would not be you. Then, too, at the moment of conception anyone of four hundred million male cells-spermatozoa had an equal chance of becoming your particular biological father, only one did. And no two of these four hundred million spermatozoa were exactly alike. Each had a slightly different chromosomal makeup. The chromosomes containing helixes of deoxyribonucleic acid DNA are those constituents of the body cells that carry the blueprint of the offspring. When the two sets of blueprints one from the father and one from the mother-are followed, a unique product results. In your case, by one chance in four hundred million, that unique product was you.