> are we 10 times more different from each other or 96 percent more similar to chimpanzees? <
I think the journalist is trying to say this:
Certain DNA specialists now believe that approximately one per cent of our genetic material differs from human to human -- whereas they used to think there was a human-to-human difference of about one-tenth of one percent.
Therefore, since one percent is ten times as large as 0.1 per cent, the new finding says we differ from one another by about ten times as much as previously thought.
(Stated alternatively, we're only 99.0 per cent alike rather than 99.9 per cent alike.)
Similarly, scientists used to say that about one per cent of the typical human's genetic material was different from the genetic material of the typical chimpanzee. Now however, certain experts believe we differ from chimps in about four per cent of our genetic material. So the new doctrine has increased the perceived human-to-chimpanzee difference by a factor of four.
(Or, we're only 96 per cent like chimps, rather than 99 per cent. And a good thing it is, IMHO!)
Funny, we have evidence we are 96% DNA compatible with chimps, yet on another FR thread we have an on-going debate about high-school students in trouble for writing that a local Taco Bell had customers that acted like a pack of monkeys...Go figure!