“We do not even in the least know the final cause of sexuality; why new beings should be produced by the union of the two sexual elements…The whole subject is as yet hidden in darkness.”

So wrote Charles Darwin in 1862. In this week’s issue of Science, I write an essay on what we know now about this mystery. The essay is

here (subscription required), and you can listen to me talking about why sex is weirder than you know on this week’s Science Podcast.

To continue this celebration of sex in all its evolutionary glory, I’ll be guest-blogging a few times this month over at Science‘s Origins blog. I’ll let you know here when each post goes up.

Image: From Robert F. on Flickr/Creative Commons License

Originally published June 4, 2009. Copyright 2009 Carl Zimmer.