我们对性了解多少？

It depends on whom you ask Nathan H. Lents Given its unique role in conveying genes to future generations, no other function presses more di- rectly on evolution than reproduction. And yet, as two new books make uncomfortably clear, the foundations of our knowledge about sex and re- production were built on shaky ground. Both books excel at pointing out the inherent contradic- tions of sex. How can evolution strongly favor sex, which incessantly generates variety, just as strongly as it favors se- lection, which incessantly culls it—an enigma that Darwin himself wrestled with. As Joan Roughgarden forcefully ar- gued in a recent critique of sexual selection theory, we have yet to fully resolve this conundrum (1). …