The Enigma of Sex, Part 2
Curious Cases
BBC
4.8 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2018
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The second instalment in our double bill on the science of sex, answering this question from Robert Turner, a Curio from Leeds: "Why do we only have two sexes?"
Drs Rutherford and Fry look for anomalies in the animal kingdom that go beyond the traditional mechanics of human reproduction. Biologist and author Carin Bondar describes some of the wild and somewhat disturbing ways other animals like to do it.
Take the hermaphrodite sea slug who races to stab its penis into its partner's brain during sex, or the female redback spider who loves to indulge in a spot of post-coital cannibalism.
But the greatest number of different sexes is found in the world of fungi. Some species can have hundreds of distinct mating types. Fungal ecologist Lynne Boddy explains how mushrooms have sex and why on earth they need so many polygamous partners.
Presenters: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford Producer: Michelle Martin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday |
| 0:10.8 | mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. |
| 0:16.5 | I like it. Welcome to episode two of the curious cases of Rutherford and Fry with me, Dr |
| 0:26.0 | Hannah Fry. And me, Dr Adam Rutherford. This is a two-parter, one of my favorite subjects in all |
| 0:32.5 | of science, why sex exists, the complexities of sexual reproduction, which many of which are still |
| 0:38.6 | utter mysteries. Indeed they are. Now in the first episode we covered why do we even have sex at |
| 0:44.0 | all, why don't we just reproduce sex actually? Like the rotifers that we discussed in the first |
| 0:49.8 | episode. The cute little bugs. Really, really cute. There are no rotifers in this episode. They are |
| 0:55.4 | some very, very exotic and disturbing sexual practices. There are. We have got some weird |
| 1:02.4 | animal sex, which involves stabbing and or eating your partner. And we would just like to point |
| 1:08.0 | out very clearly that neither we nor BBC Radio 4 condoned this kind of behaviour in humans. |
| 1:15.9 | Let's just all agree that animal is weird. |
| 1:18.1 | Welcome back to the second installment of the Enigma of Sex based on this question sent in by |
| 1:29.2 | Robert Turner from Leeds. Why do we only have two sexes? And are there any anomalies in the animal |
| 1:35.2 | kingdom? Now in the first part we considered why we have different sexes at all, because let's face |
| 1:40.7 | it, some people claim life would be a lot easier with only one. Which kind of work as an idea, |
| 1:45.8 | as long as you don't mind being ravaged by disease, genetic mutations and eventually extinction. |
| 1:51.5 | Anyway, in this episode we're going to be asking why it takes two to tango for humans anyway, |
| 1:57.2 | when a lion dance might be more fun or maybe the hokey cokey. |
| 2:02.3 | Really stretching that dance and I'll do that, aren't you? Now, we are used to the idea of |
| 2:07.4 | there being two sexes, male and female. Yes. But if we have a good route around, you'll quickly |
| 2:13.1 | find that the animal world is much more complicated than that, take hemaphrodites, for example, says |
... |
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