Podbit · Modern Wisdom
Start with same-size gametes and you get an unstable equilibrium. Some gametes get bigger to carry more nutrients; others get smaller and more numerous to outcompete them. The middle disappears. This is how the biological sex binary emerges — and why it appears in virtually every sexually reproducing species on Earth.
Where this was said
At 8:00 · chapter starts 7:55
Chris asks what sex actually is, and Stewart-Williams cuts straight to the scientific definition: sex is defined by gamete size. Organisms that produce small gametes are male; those that produce large gametes are female. This is not just a generalisation — it is a definitional truth that holds across almost every sexually reproducing species. The podcast then digs into why this binary is evolutionarily inevitable. Start with same-sized gametes (isogamy) and you get an unstable equilibrium: some gametes are selected to carry more nutrients (getting bigger), while others are selected to be tiny and numerous to seek out the larger ones. The medium-sized gametes — neither big enough to survive well nor small enough to be produced in huge numbers — go extinct. The result is always a barbell: eggs and sperm, females and males. A ChatGPT lookup provides comic illustration: global human sperm production is approximately 200 quadrillion, versus 70 million eggs.
Human males produce an estimated 200 quadrillion sperm globally versus only 70 million eggs released, illustrating the fundamental asymmetry of male and female reproductive investment.
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