Many organisms can reproduce sexually and asexually. The latter process can give rise to many more progeny, so why do such organisms bother with sexual reproduction? It is generally held that the answer lies in the provision of genetic shuffling through sex, which in turn can create assemblies of mutations that confer a selective advantage or clear those that do not. But testing these principles is by no means easy, and that provided the central debating point at a meeting that dealt with the evolution and maintenance of sex.
