[expatpat]

single mutations (recessive or otherwise) actually have a counter-intuitively high chance of "fixing" in the population through chance alone......The odds of a new mutation eventually fixing in the population works out to 1/N

That certainly is counter-intuitive. Can you give me a readily-accessible source for that? I'm not challenging what you say, but would like to understand how that result comes about.

[Ichneumon]

[single mutations (recessive or otherwise) actually have a counter-intuitively high chance of "fixing" in the population through chance alone......The odds of a new mutation eventually fixing in the population works out to 1/N]

That certainly is counter-intuitive. Can you give me a readily-accessible source for that? I'm not challenging what you say, but would like to understand how that result comes about.

Sure. I don't know what level of explanation you'd prefer, so here are several good introductions to the subject, of varying levels of detail:

Random Genetic Drift (talk.origins)

Genetic Drift (Wikipedia)

Population Size and Genetic Drift (detailed math)

Genetic Drift Simulation (Java applet, simulation)

Population Genetics of Plant Pathogens: Genetic Drift (more math)

Genetic Drift (EvoWiki)

Random Genetic Drift (yet more math)

GENETIC DRIFT (mostly graphs)