Historical Examples. 1  Folk of the land it had lapped in flame, with bale and brand. 2  Over these they lapped thinner ones, which gave us great pain. 3  So I lapped thee in blankets and brought thee, to-morrow is a se'nnight. 4  The stores of corn and fruit were lapped by millions of crimson tongues.
Heredity is the genetic information passing for traits from parents to their offspring, either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction. This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism.
Why does sex -- that is, sexual reproduction -- exist? In many ways, asexual reproduction is a better evolutionary strategy: Only one parent is required, and all of that parent's genes are passed on to its progeny. In sexual reproduction, only half of each parent's genes are passed to the next generation. What's more, a mate must be found. Yet sex persists. This essay offers possible explanations of this evolutionary paradox.