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“show that their (neanderthal) genomes and ours are more than 99.5 percent identical, differing by only about 3 million bases.”

Now where is the data that says that inter-human variability is similarly 99.5%? I have heard more like 99.9%.

http://www.biotechniques.com/multimedia/archive/00002/BTN_A_000112275_O_2509a.pdf

So the 0.5% genomic difference we see between human and neanderthal is about one fifth less between human populations, or 0.1%.

This is exactly what one would expect if they diverged from humans some 500,000 years ago, rather than any two human populations, which would have a most recent common ancestor at least within the last 100,000 years.

BTW, we don't have a full genome survey for all the major human types. That's coming. Right now they're pretty much limited to looking at areas of known differences ~ and that's been right off the charts ~ way beyond expectation.

There are hundreds of genes that needed modification so that people could consume milk all their lives, or to develop the light skin necessary to life in the higher latitudes.

Now it's reported that the Chinese have some gene modifications that facilitate their use of "tone" in language, and to eat rice more efficiently. Just a few weeks ago I read about a group of Vietnamese people who appear to be genetically modified so that the ONLY grain they can consume is rice ~ it's kind of like having a super Celiac condition. No wheat, rye, barley, corn, etc. I have not yet heard if they are limited to eating Japonica, or can they eat both Japonica and Indicum (rice comes in two species in case you missed that ~ not just to varieties ~ they are different plants entirely).

quoting article: "show that their (neanderthal) genomes and ours are more than 99.5 percent identical, differing by only about 3 million bases."

allmendream: "Now where is the data that says that inter-human variability is similarly 99.5%? I have heard more like 99.9%."

That 99.5% is a miscalculation.
The operative number here is "3 million bases", which should calculate to 99.9% identical DNA.
These are the same numbers as amongst modern humans.

Here is my previous post on this subject.

It references this report, from which here is the "money quote":

"Nucleotide diversity is based on single mutations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
"The nucleotide diversity between humans is about 0.1%, which is 1 difference per 1,000 base pairs.[4][5][6]
"A difference of 1 in 1,000 nucleotides between two humans chosen at random amounts to approximately 3 million nucleotide differences since the human genome has about 3 billion nucleotides.
"Most of these SNPs are neutral but some are functional and influence phenotypic differences between humans through alleles.
"It is estimated that a total of 10 million SNPs exist in the human population of which at least 1% are functional"

In simple English: any two modern humans can differ by up to one-tenth of one percent of their 3 billion DNA base pairs, or about 3 million SNPs. Amongst the entire human population are about three-tenths of one percent (10 million SNPs) total DNA diversity.

Current estimates of Neanderthal vs. modern Human SNPs are also around 3 million.
These would not, of course, necessarily be the same 3 million differences -- excepting potentially 1% to 4% resulting from alleged interbreeding.

Naturally, you might argue that 3 million Neanderthal SNPs is way too few, the number is underestimated, it has to be higher given the time-spans involved.

Yes, you could argue that, but so far 3 million SNPs is still the number, and it makes Neanderthal DNA 99.9% -- not 99.5% -- identical to modern humans. ;-)