Unorthodox

I've never really written about science- not on this blog or anywhere else- but I couldn't resist posting about this piece that was just put up on the New York Times Opinionator blog because of it's title, Unorthodox

It has nothing to do with gymnastics or Judaism or even breaking. It's about ciliate sex.

I guess the "Birds and the Bees" talk doesn't really apply here.

In ciliate sex, two individuals arrive, and two individuals leave: no eggs are fertilized, no offspring are produced. But by the time the two individuals go their separate ways, a massive change will have come over both of them: they will both have acquired a new genetic identity. The second odd consequence is that, partway through its life, a ciliate can radically alter its genetic make-up; genetically speaking, the transformation is so extreme that it’s as if you changed into one of your children. Talk about being reborn.

Another choice bit:

As if that wasn’t enough strangeness, here’s one other peculiar detail. Many ciliates have more than two sexes (or “mating types”) and some — Stylonychia mytilus, for example — have as many as 100. This doesn’t mean that 100 individuals have to gather for sex to take place. Rather, it means that you can mate with anyone not of the same mating type as yourself. In principle, it gives you more choice: with more mating types, more individuals are eligible mates. In my next life . . . .