What did I say? We are nothing but a cosmic spermatic...

The Origin of Sex: Cosmic Solution to Ancient Mystery
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
published in science.com - look for the complete article...


Comets and asteroids have been blamed for a lot of things before. Shaping Earth. Jumpstarting life. Wiping out dinosaurs. Even possibly altering human evolution.

But never sex.

Roughly 1 billion years after the first organisms romped in the hay, the origin of sex remains one of biology's greatest mysteries. Scientists can't say exactly why we do it, or what triggered those initial terrestrial flirtations. Before sex, life seemed to manage fine by employing asexual reproduction -- the cloning of offspring without the help of a partner.

Now a new study out of Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has used digital organisms to simulate life before sex and yielded a possible mechanism for instigating Earth's first courtship.

Intimacy never sounded so stressful.

Comet or asteroid impacts could have stressed asexual organisms enough to send them down the path of sexual reproduction after forcing a flurry of genetic mutations, the study shows. Heavy doses of radiation might also have done the trick.

While these potential catalysts for mutations are highly speculative, researchers Claus Wilke and Chris Adami announced Monday night that they have determined with certainty one possible way that organisms could have managed such a chaotic environment to their advantage in opening the original door to sexual liberation.

The key to this mutation management, Adami told SPACE.com, is the discovery that when things get rough, a population of organisms adapts to handling a few mutations, while also ensuring that many mutations will be self-destructive.

"Mutations can and do still occur," he said, "but they lead to dead organisms and therefore do not affect the future."

Before sex

Sex never should have happened, biologists often say.