Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice To All Creation- Olivia Judson


**1/2/*****                                                                                                                                                     Science

Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice To All Creation-The Definitive Guide To The Evolutionary Biology Of Sex
Olivia Judson

                Dr Tatiana, an agony aunt, advises various animals on their weird sexual ways. The queries brought to her vary from male insects complaining about nagging wives, young females aghast at poor attention of males, cannibalistic females that chew their male consorts even during the act of love-making, perplexed primates who are exhausted in an attempt to satisfy the insatiable libido of their female companions and many more such whines. Dr Tatiana explains these seemingly bizarre sexual practices in light of evolution. She talks about the war of sexes, the notion of male’s natural tendency to be a philanderer, the evolution of stable sex-ratio, the reason behind grotesque differences in size of male and female in certain species, the advantages of father’s contribution towards child-care, the origin and need of sexual reproduction and many more such interesting topics.
                Olivia Judson’s research is extensive. The sheer variety of sexual life in animal and plant kingdom offers a stupefying view of the infinite powers of natural selection. Her prose is easy on mind and witty. A pitfall of the book wholly devoted to sexual life of animals is the boredom that sets in after a couple of sections as all chapters pertain to a similar narrow theme however varied and surprising might be the stories that each animal has to narrate. Perhaps the book should not be read in one stretch but over many days, in between other books.

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