Yeast Love
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/how_do_you_know_its_sex/
Apparently yeast has sex? Apparently yeast is living? Am I the only one who previously only thought of yeast in two terms:
1. infection. ew.
2. that ingredient that Moses decided to make bread without, creating the miracle of matzah
But other than that, this picture of yeast getting it on has my vote for best cartoon erotica of all time. Yeah, even better than you creepy sailor moon anime porn. A yeast porno better be in the works.
The article of course is fascinating too, but I don’t currently have the energy to tackle the kinds of issues it raises. Like the ambiguity sexual reproduction in certain species (like yeast) and how it challenges the definition of sexual reproduction in the first place. And why do beings have sex at all when it makes more survivalist sense just to asexually clone, like hydras and sponges and that one kimodo dragon (seriously, look it up).
waltzofthesaltz.wordpress.com 
June 29, 2009 at 7:55 am |
a. SEED magazine seems interesting. I’ve only seen a few issues, but it seems to be what Wired magazine was: not a popular science magazine like Discover or Scientific American, but rather a magazine that’s trying to understand the science and technology’s affect on people, society, and politics.
b. Sexual reproduction results in much more population diversity. The offspring of two organisms is pretty much the only such member of its species with that exact combination of traits, while the offspring in asexual reproduction IS genetically its parent plus or minus some copy errors.
Diversity is advantageous because it gives the sexual population a bigger skill set. So if there’s some environmental change that upsets the status quo, there’s a better chance in a population that undergoes sexual reproduction that there’s some organisms in the population that can exist in the new environment. While in the asexual population, the population only has “one trick”, and if that trick no longer works in the new environment, the entire population is pretty screwed.
July 1, 2009 at 3:52 am |
SEED is really cool, I just started reading it recently too.
And yeah, you’re right, environmental change does seem to be the big, inevitable issue that I overlooked. I guess I should change the part about it making the most survivalist sense. But asexual reproduction still has efficiency going for it. If only we lived in a static environment, shit would be so much more simple.
June 29, 2009 at 10:22 am |
emily, i officially love your blog. you actually take the time to write about interesting subjects! you have far more discipline than I ever will.
July 6, 2009 at 8:07 pm |
Thanks Zoe! And you know that’s not true. Give it a try, I need more links anyway.