Audrey Lynn A.

Arcilla Reflection: Evolve of Sex

July, 23, 2013

All my life, I have never imagined how most animals reproduce. Yes, I have seen dogs going at it in the streets, but I guess I just assumed that all animals did it the same way. Watching Evolve of Sex really has increased my knowledge and deepened my appreciation of animals and their methods of survival. I liked the blast from the past part in the beginning of the video, showing how animals used to reproduce from 700 million years ago to the present. I learned of the smart moves that animals had to make in order to continue their lineage. From asexual to sexual reproduction, first releasing gametes into the ocean current, to getting pregnant, then to living on land and producing eggs. The next part of the video shows the many ways of how insects reproduce. Again, I have never though about this before, and I was surprised and fascinated at the lengths these little creatures go to in order to produce the perfect offspring. In their tiny world, sex is a war story, a war over sperm. My minimal knowledge of the ways on how to reproduce is part of the reason why I was surprised by the insects. I learned that male insects can be very domineering to get a female pregnant, how they can scoop up the sperm of another male and insert something to prevent other sperm to enter. I was humbled by the stick insects, offering their life just to pass on their genes. I also was able to understand cockroaches, the superstars of reproductive biology, a whole lot more, learning that a female roach need only to have sex once to get pregnant forever. Genetic Engineering was the last part of the video. I personally dislike this concept. It seems very callous to me, the idea of having multiple embryos and choosing one that best represents your genes. Its like having a set of children and choosing the one that is the most wellbehaved and then killing the others. Not only does it eliminate the need to have sex by growing humans in test tubes, I think that it also eliminates the need to love, by turning this act into one of cold calculation and figures. It is also a very messy process, with no guarantees of side efects. How many experiments must be done before getting it right? If the road to human perfection is littered with dead bodies, then no one should be perfect at all. But thats a long way down the road. For now, Im pretty certain that most everyone is content with our way of reproduction, having sex.