On the Origin of Sex (Hardback)

The Weird and Wonderful Science of How Our Planet is Populated

Lixing Sun

Explore the spectacular science of reproduction - from frogs and funghi to seahorses, sparrows and everything in between

Let's talk about sex. Not boring, human sex, but the endlessly fascinating, varied and complex forms of reproduction that can be found in the rest of the natural world.

Whiptail lizards and California condors are capable of immaculate conception, while clownfish and bearded dragons regularly switch between male and female.Sex in slime molds can involve three mating types. For some fungi, it's twenty-three thousand. And for algae, every single organism is a potential mate - a veritable bonanza.

Lixing Sun has spent decades expanding the bounds of what we know about reproduction, in all its many flavours. And as it turns out, sex is far more complex and eye-opening than we ever could have imagined.

Publication date: 05/03/2026

£22.00

ISBN: 9781805223283

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: Arts, Language & Literature, Science & Mathematics

On the Origin of Sex (Ebook)

The Weird and Wonderful Science of How Our Planet is Populated

Lixing Sun

Preorder from

Explore the spectacular science of reproduction - from frogs and funghi to seahorses, sparrows and everything in between

Let's talk about sex. Not boring, human sex, but the endlessly fascinating, varied and complex forms of reproduction that can be found in the rest of the natural world.

Whiptail lizards and California condors are capable of immaculate conception, while clownfish and bearded dragons regularly switch between male and female.Sex in slime molds can involve three mating types. For some fungi, it's twenty-three thousand. And for algae, every single organism is a potential mate - a veritable bonanza.

Lixing Sun has spent decades expanding the bounds of what we know about reproduction, in all its many flavours. And as it turns out, sex is far more complex and eye-opening than we ever could have imagined.

Publication date: 05/03/2026

£18.99

ISBN: 9781805223306

ISBN 10 / ASIN: B0FC7TND3G

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: Arts, Language & Literature, Science & Mathematics

Reviews for On the Origin of Sex

'Praise for previous works'

 :

'A tour de force of evolutionary biology'

 Wall Street Journal

'This eye-opening book by Lixing Sun expertly explains how the natural world is filled to the brim with misleading signals and subterfuge'

Frans de Waal 

'A highly readable and well-written...wide-ranging and interdisciplinary book'

 Psychology Today

Lixing Sun

Lixing Sun

Dr Lixing Sun first studied at East China Normal University in Shanghai before completing a PhD in ecology, behavior and evolution at the State University of New York and Syracuse University. He is currently a Distinguished Research Professor at Central Washington University. He has authored or coauthored over 60 research articles in scientific journals, and contributed extensively to a number of academic books, as well as authoring three non-trade books, the most recent of which was selected as a Book of the Week by the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. He was awarded a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship in 2024.