A friend of mine recently confessed to me that he preferred to think of himself as a virgin birth.  When I asked why, he said he likes to think that his parents never had sex.  I have no idea where he thinks he got his Y chromosome from, as his mother has only the two Xs, but I suppose invoking miracles to do away with inconvenient thoughts is hardly something he invented.  Much like industrial meat production and the effectiveness of sneeze guards at salad bars, the topic of parental sex is one item we would probably rather leave unexamined.

Some organisms don’t need to avoid this topic, Continue reading →