Biologists today still consider “the evolution of sex” to be the biggest question under debate. Despite its obvious advantages, sexual reproduction is a more expensive and inefficient means of reproduction. Asexual reproduction does not pose any costly means during reproduction nor does it require combining one's genetic material with another male or female. Asexual organisms have the ability to grow twice as fast as sexually reproducing organisms. A sexually reproducing population must in fact produce both sexes, which means that only 50% of them are capable of giving birth alone. Unlike asexual breeding populations, 100% of their offspring can potentially give birth. This analogy is called double costing. So the question remains, given the advantages of asexual reproduction, why do most organisms prefer to reproduce sexually? The question posed had been called the sex paradox. Multiple mechanisms are necessary to attempt to explain the emergence and maintenance of sexual reproduction. “Among the many explanations put forward for the prevalence of recombination and sex, a number of them are considered the most likely.” (Kondrashov 1993). Muller's Ratchet, adapting to fluctuating environments and increasing the rate of adaptation may well be the answer to the evolution of sex. Can these theories be valid enough to offset the cost of sex? Or will it take a combination of all theories to solve the greatest mystery of all, sex? Over the course of several years, evolutionists have attempted to explain the reality of sexual reproduction to promote genetic variability. However, this explanation is not only wrong but also has some drawbacks. Sexual reproduction occurs through the formation of g...... middle of paper...... cockroach combing these three mechanisms might be necessary to fully balance the dual cost of sex. (West, Lively, Read) The theory of accumulation of mutations requires that mutation rates be high (Kondrashov, 1993 Deleterious mutations and the evolution of sexual reproduction), each deleterious mutation will cause a decrease in log fitness relative to the previous, and population sizes need to be large for this to work properly. Although some models are unable to fully explain the double cost of sex, it may well play an important role. A pluralistic approach makes it possible to “shift the emphasis of empirical work from the search for discriminant predictions to the estimation of parameters”. This approach also “emphasizes environmental and mutational mechanisms that interact synergistically in multiple ways and compensate for the weaknesses of each.” (West, Livley, Read)