Читать книгу Quantum Evolution: Life in the Multiverse - Johnjoe McFadden - Страница 19

Like nearly everyone else on this planet, I have a keen interest in sex. However, I justify my curiosity by claiming a fascination with procreation, or, simply, how living creatures make copies of themselves. Biologically speaking, reproduction is our most important action. We wouldn’t be here if our parents and all our ancestors hadn’t managed to reproduce before death. Even the icy microbes that live below Antarctica’s frozen lakes must occasionally split into two cells.

All reproduction involves making a copy of the parent in a new body. To make a new body, we (or at least females of our species) need food and energy. We obtain these by the variety of strategies already described. More importantly, our cells and bodies need to know what kind of body to make and how to make it. Despite the variety and diversity amongst living creatures in the materials that they use to build cells and bodies, they all utilize the same material for storing their building instructions. Which brings us to the thorny question that has occupied most young minds at one time or other.