Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation

Released: None

Runtime: 60 minutes

Episode Overview

The female button beetle mates with her son and then eats him. Some male mites copulate with their sisters inside their mother's womb. So when is incest acceptable? Sea hares engage in lengthy orgies-they are hermphrodites, so they can play the male role and the female role both at the same time. When is it a good idea to be a hermaphrodite? Meanwhile, the bdelloid rotifer has not had sex for millions of generations. Why not? And why don't the rest of us follow her example? Find out... This episode features several interviews, including with Dan Fessler, an anthropologist at UCLA, and with Janet Leonard, a banana slug expert at UC Santa Cruz. And it features songs such as The Trouble with Sex, and Strangely Familiar.

Series Overview

A guide to the evolutionary biology of sex. Science documentary with songs(!) based on the book “Dr Tatiana's, Sex Advice to all Creation - The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex” written by the biologist Olivia Judson. and adapted for television. If sex is universal, why do species go about it in so many different ways? And what can humans learn from the mating habits of the creatures of the animal world? Sex is the engine of evolution - the drive to mix genes to produce the strongest, fastest or most efficient specimen of the species has propelled all of creation to evolve, adapt and survive. Promiscuity, jealousy, violence, incest, suicide, cannibalism and indeed hermaphrodites all serve an evolutionary purpose - and in the animal world, monogamy is a "sexually deviant" behaviour that serves no evolutionary intent. 3 x 1 hour episodes. Dr Tatiana is played by the author Olivia Judson. Production Company: Wag TV and EPI Productions for Channel 4: 2004