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The Language of the GenesIn one instance the party had been digging potatoes — the finest he had ever seen from a particular field, and a particular ridge in that field until Monday last; and digging in the same ridge on Tuesday he found the tubers all blasted and unfit for the use of man or beast.' In the next five years, a million and a half people starved. Their crop had been attacked by a fungus, the potato blight, which is sexual and has many generations to each one among its hosts. The parasites evolved at a greater rate than could the potato. Nowadays, plants with new sets of genes are tried every few years to counter this. Other asexual crops, such as bananas, have as yet escaped the fate of the Irish potato (although it cannot be indefinitely delayed). The potatoes were forced into an evolutionary dead end from which the sole escape is sex. Because of the dangers, rather few animals have abandoned that pastime. They include the odd lizard or fish, but none of our close relatives. Even greenflies, which manage without it for most of the time, require a bout once a year or so ...» |
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