AARATHI PRASAD was born in 1975 and has a PhD in biology and worked in cancer genetics at Imperial College London before moving out of the lab and into the world of science policy and communication. She currently works at Sense About Science, a charity set up to promote evidence-based science in public discussion. Her interest in reproductive medicine arises from three things: an undergraduate research project studying a protein that gives mouse sperm the capacity to fertilize eggs; her time in Parliament working to get the human-animal chimera stem-cell bill passed; and the fact that she is a single mother and sometimes thinks that it would be fabulous to have another child without first having to find the right man. She has recently written for Prospect magazine and the Bulletin of the Royal College of Pathologists. THE END OF SEX is her first book. She has also been commissioned to write and present a two-part BBC radio programme on the subject.

THE END OF SEX
The Quest for Reproduction without Men

From Greek mythology to the latest findings in developmental genetics, THE END OF SEX tells the story of the human quest for the seemingly impossible: reproduction without males.

Sexual evolution is a slippery business. Like all mammals, we humans seem to have been left no choice in the matter: even though it is costly, inefficient and dangerous, if we want to reproduce we simply have to have sex. Yet most human cultures tell the tale of a maiden who gives birth untouched by a man; and in the wild there are plenty of creatures – such as turkeys, komodo dragons, sharks and the ‘Jesus Christ’ lizard (which walks on water, too) – that take various approaches to reproducing without sex

In THE END OF SEX, the biology writer Aarathi Prasad discusses how reproduction without sex is achieved in animals and explores why evolution hasn’t made it an option for humans – yet. In doing so she provides a quirky, entertaining and perceptive overview of the mysteries of evolutionary biology, sex and reproduction.

It’s a remarkable story that ranges across natural history, agriculture, conservation and medicine; takes in some of the most exciting areas of genetics and molecular biology that other popular science books largely ignore; and is packed full of a cast of amazing characters, be they obscure animals or eccentric scientists such as the respected geneticist Dr Helen Spurway who in the UK in the 1950s unwittingly sparked a nationwide search for a virgin mother.

There is now a plethora of strategies being developed in reproductive medicine that could ultimately keep our species going in a world without sex: the creation of artificial eggs and sperm from bone marrow, labs-on-chips on which eggs are fertilized, silicone wombs and artificial wombs (where fetuses can spend their full nine months), and even research to prepare us for reproduction in space. What's more, we are finally beginning to understand what genetic modifications are needed to allow for the creation of women who could have babies without having sex.

As Aarathi Prasad puts it, now that we have the competent hand of science in our lives, will girls still need men?

Publisher: Oneworld (UK/US)
Delivery: 31 December 2009
Pub date: Autumn 2010
Status: Proposal and sample chapter
Length: 70,000 words

All rights available excluding:
UK & Commonwealth, US, Japan (East Press)