Project plans map of Neanderthal genome

The Globe and Mail ^ | 7/24/06 | GEIR MOULSON

[doc30]

BERLIN — U.S. and German scientists have launched a two-year project to decipher the genetic code of the Neanderthal, a feat they hope will help deepen understanding of how modern humans' brains evolved.

Neanderthals were a species that lived in Europe and western Asia from more than 200,000 years ago to about 30,000 years ago. Scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology are teaming up a company in Connecticut to map the genome, or humans' DNA code.

“The Neanderthal is the closest relative to the modern human, and we believe that by sequencing the Neanderthal we can learn a lot,” said Michael Egholm, a vice-president at 454 Life Sciences Corp. of Branford, Conn., which will use its high-speed sequencing technology in the project.

There are no firm answers yet about how humans picked up key traits such as walking upright and developing complex language. Neanderthals are believed to have been relatively sophisticated, but lacking in humans' higher reasoning functions.

The Neanderthal project follows scientists' achievement last year in deciphering the DNA of the chimpanzee, our closest living relative. That genome map produced a long list of DNA differences between humans and chimps and some hints about which differences might be crucial.

The chimp genome “led to literally too many questions, there were 35 million differences between us and chimpanzees – that's too much to figure out,” 454 chairman Jonathan Rothberg said in a telephone interview.

“By having Neanderthal, we'll really be able to home in on the small percentage of differences that gave us higher cognitive abilities,” he said. “Neanderthal is going to open the box. It's not going to answer the question, but it's going to tell where to look to understand all of those higher cognitive functions.”

Over two years, the scientists aim to reconstruct a draft of the three-billion building blocks of the Neanderthal genome – working with fossil samples from several individuals.

They face the complication of working with 40,000-year-old samples, and of filtering out microbial DNA that contaminated them after death.

Only about 5 per cent of the DNA in the samples is actually Neanderthal DNA, Mr. Egholm said, but he and Mr. Rothberg said pilot experiments had convinced them that the decoding was feasible.

At the Max Planck Institute, the project also involves Svante Paabo, who nine years ago participated in a pioneering, though smaller-scale, DNA test on a Neanderthal sample.

That study suggested that Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor a half-million years ago and backed the theory that Neanderthals were an evolutionary dead end.

The new project will help in understanding how characteristics unique to humans evolved and “will also identify those genetic changes that enabled modern humans to leave Africa and rapidly spread around the world,” Mr. Paabo said in a statement Thursday.

[Quark2005]

A professional student and future freeloader in the making.

If you can't figure out what scientific research has contributed to the well-being of our great country, your sense of reality is a bit wanting.

Thank you for making your illucid postion and open hostility toward knowledge so plain for everyone to see, though.

[after dark]

We would need a heck of a lot of Neanderthals to create a Neanderthal culture. If he was way more intelligence than we do, well we would have a good script for a scifi/horror movie. We could test his intelligence by raising him as a regular human. At the very least his observations on us would be interesting. If we recreated several of them and raised them together, they might give us insight into how Neanderthals related to each other.Of course we could not expect them to become intelligent ,if they were raised like zoo animals.

[af_vet_rr]

What's the saying/joke - if finding a cure for a disease involves hooking chimpanzees up to car batteries, I've only got two things to say - red is positive and black is negative.

Tasteless joke, but I think it's kind of an analogy for a lot of things - people may not understand why somebody is researching something, but they could easily understand the practical applications years later.

Personally, I find it interesting that they are trying to map this out - I think we should know as much about our ancestors and their "cousins" as we can (cousins is not the best description, but it's good enough for my understanding), regardless of whether it helps us develop any kind of treatments or whatever.

[oh8eleven]

Maybe someday when you grow up, and if you get a real job, you may have the privilege of paying taxes and you'll understand the hostility. You want to discover some new element on Venus? Great, now go ask Bill Gates to pay for your project, not the US taxpayer.

BTW - you've already established and illustrated the classic elitist attitude. I'm sure you'll do well groveling for grants.

[PatrickHenry]

Some new element on Venus placemarker.

[Quark2005]

Maybe someday when you grow up, and if you get a real job, you may have the privilege of paying taxes and you'll understand the hostility.

Been there and done that. Maybe one day you'll actually learn a bit about science and why it's actually important to civilization. (Hint - the computer you are working on is a product of science.)

You want to discover some new element on Venus? Great, now go ask Bill Gates to pay for your project, not the US taxpayer.

I'm sure this attitude would really have been a great help during the Manhattan Project.

BTW - you've already established and illustrated the classic elitist attitude.

No, you've done that by reaping the benefits that scientific research (often government-funded) has provided you and disdaining the hard work that helped make it happen. I've learned over the years to appreciate the talents and contributions of people that work in fields different than my own - you might want to do the same.

I'm sure you'll do well groveling for grants.

And I'll think of you with a smile on my face when I'm looking for 'new elements on Venus.'

[PatrickHenry]

And I'll think of you with a smile on my face when I'm looking for 'new elements on Venus.'

Helium was first identified on the sun. That's why the element's name comes from the Greek word Helios. Another worthless waste of effort, I guess. You science creeps are a disgrace!

[PistolPaknMama]

Or do you just dislike science in general?

Oh gosh no! Since I was a wee lass I have been kind of a science junkie. You're not jumping to inconclusive conslusions too, are you?

[Coyoteman]

Or do you just dislike science in general?

Oh gosh no! Since I was a wee lass I have been kind of a science junkie. You're not jumping to inconclusive conslusions too, are you?

I guess it was just your mocking tone, directed toward science, that fooled me.

[PistolPaknMama]

I guess it was just your mocking tone, directed toward science, that fooled me.

Listen, there was a time when I wanted to go into DNA research, only then there wasn't a whole lot of future in inherited stuff. Now the whole field is booming. Then I toyed with astronomy. At the time, man had already walked on the moon, so what else was there? So I just became a mommy and whatever I could offer to science was devoted instead to only two human children. Science IS a mockery. Davinci invented on paper a bicycle that technology would not support for another 300 years. The earth was flat, there were monsters ready to devour you if you ventured there. These were the top reknown scientists of the time. Now we have scientist with their scoffing public AND PEERS saying "nahhh it can't be done." Will they be as wrong as Davinci and his bicycle? Hopefully!!

[Quark2005]

You science creeps are a disgrace!

Well, sometimes, but that's totally besides the point...

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Oh gosh no! Since I was a wee lass I have been kind of a science junkie. You're not jumping to inconclusive conslusions too, are you?"

"Science IS a mockery."

Well, looks like he was right; you don't like science. Would be nice if you could at least be consistent about it.

"The earth was flat, there were monsters ready to devour you if you ventured there. These were the top reknown scientists of the time."

Name ONE who said that.

[PatrickHenry]

Ever hear one of the "seminar callers" that Rush sometimes gets? "I'm a life-long Republican, but ... Bush lied, the war is immoral, the CIA caused the World Trade Center collapse, tax cuts for the rich, worst economy since the Depression, it's all about oil, stolen election, Halliburton, etc."

[CarolinaGuitarman]

Exactly.

[PistolPaknMama]

Well, looks like he was right; you don't like science. Would be nice if you could at least be consistent about it. "The earth was flat, there were monsters ready to devour you if you ventured there. These were the top reknown scientists of the time." Name ONE who said that.

Actually, I hate to tell you this, but this is a forum where people post opinions. I can say whatever I want and the Evolution Nazis aren't going to come take me away. Science has always been a mockery back from the early days when the sun revolved around the earth. I've lost my grammar school books about the earth being flat, prior to Columbus, plus I don't have to do your research for you. If you want to know who put that in our grammar school books, you look it up.

The fascinating thing about science is that it eventually corrects itself. Whatever is proven today is disproven tomorrow and then there's a new theory. It's a fascinating frontier whose horizon moves further out with each new discovery.

I won't apologize that I find in science more awe and wonder than you find a reason to start a stupid argument than even you don't understand.

[PatrickHenry]

Well there you are. Do your own research. And get your own dirt. Nya, nya, nyaaaaaa!

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Actually, I hate to tell you this, but this is a forum where people post opinions. I can say whatever I want and the Evolution Nazis aren't going to come take me away."

Who said anything about you not being able to say what you want? This isn't even about evolution, as you hate science in general.

"Science has always been a mockery back from the early days when the sun revolved around the earth."

So as I said, you hate science. You are entitled. But I am also entitled to point it out.

"I've lost my grammar school books about the earth being flat, prior to Columbus, plus I don't have to do your research for you."

I'll save you the trouble. It's a myth. No educated person in Columbus' time thought the Earth was flat. It was known since the ancient Greeks that the Earth was round, and all of the maps of Columbus' time took that into account. There was never a controversy over whether the earth was round or flat, but the size of the Earth. Columbus thought the Earth was about 25% smaller than everybody else did. He was dead wrong. The only thing that saved his voyage was the unforeseen discovery of America. Otherwise, the ocean would have been far to vast for him to cross.

The myth was propagated by a few people in the late 19th century who were trying to show that there was a great *warfare* between science and religion, and "Look, see how stupid those religionists were!". It was total fabrication.

"I won't apologize that I find in science more awe and wonder than you find a reason to start a stupid argument than even you don't understand."

You don't find any awe in science, since you despise it. I understand perfectly what you are trying to say. You think science is a mockery. That's your right, and it's mine to point out you hate science.

[PistolPaknMama]

You don't find any awe in science, since you despise it. I understand perfectly what you are trying to say.

Shut up already. You and I could probably sit and have the most congenial conversation about anything under the sun -- I'm willing to give you the benefit of that doubt, even though you seem like a first class sour puss that just wants to bully somebody to prove a point that has no point. The thing is, I don't care about you, your opinons, or your opinion of me. I love science....twice you twisted that around to I hate science. So you don't even have a grip on English. Go away. Don't post to me again until an hour after your meds.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Shut up already."

Or what? :)

"I love science..."

No, you think it's a *mockery*. There was no ambiguity.

"Don't post to me again until an hour after your meds."

Says the woman losing her temper and getting rude... :)

[Quark2005]

Or what? :)

Or the Evolution Nazis are going to take you away!