Like most modern folk, you probably consider sex the most natural of acts: an animalistic activity essential for procreation, as fundamental to life as eating and sleeping. But ponder the messy act in its heaving, panting glory for long, and you run into questions.
It seems slightly absurd that creatures must frolic in each others’ presence, insert body parts and writhe around to produce offspring. Consider that intercourse is often an incredibly intrusive act, requiring significant physiological changes, and one can be left wondering why sex as we know it exists at all. Maybe bacteria, which procreate without interaction, have got things right.