1997; 256 pp. $37.50. Simon & Schuster.
The Margulis/Sagan team has done it again. The most interesting text written on sex, especially the early evolution of "sex" among bacteria and the origin of what we more classically call sex and cellular involvement with sex. Suffused with suggestive language to keep the prose hot. What if humans had bacterial powers and you swam with your dog? What is Sex? emerges as the only book around to deal with the sexual attraction and mating as the governor of much behavior from the bacterial realm (and even bacteria indulge in trans-species gene donations) as well as futuristic cybersex (manipulation of the hormonal, genetic, technological, neuronal underpinnings of our romantic love). Beautifully illustrated, though the gorilla shown (p. 189) is not angry, as the caption claims, and the Celebes ape (p. 182) is not a mandrill.
