ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY TIM O'BRIEN
What Makes Us Different?
Not very much, when you look at our DNA. But those few tiny changes made all the difference in the world
Posted on 10/01/2006 3:14:48 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
You don't have to be a biologist or an anthropologist to see how closely the great apes—gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans—resemble us. Even a child can see that their bodies are pretty much the same as ours, apart from some exaggerated proportions and extra body hair. Apes have dexterous hands much like ours but unlike those of any other creature. And, most striking of all, their faces are uncannily expressive, showing a range of emotions that are eerily familiar. That's why we delight in seeing chimps wearing tuxedos, playing the drums or riding bicycles. It's why a potbellied gorilla scratching itself in the zoo reminds us of Uncle Ralph or Cousin Vinnie—and why, in a more unsettled reaction, Queen Victoria, on seeing an orangutan named Jenny at the London Zoo in 1842, declared the beast "frightful and painfully and disagreeably human."
It isn't just a superficial resemblance. Chimps, especially, not only look like us, they also share with us some human-like behaviors. They make and use tools and teach those skills to their offspring. They prey on other animals and occasionally murder each other. They have complex social hierarchies and some aspects of what anthropologists consider culture. They can't form words, but they can learn to communicate via sign language and symbols and to perform complex cognitive tasks. Scientists figured out decades ago that chimps are our nearest evolutionary cousins, roughly 98% to 99% identical to humans at the genetic level. When it comes to DNA, a human is closer to a chimp than a mouse is to a rat.
Yet tiny differences, sprinkled throughout the genome, have made all the difference. Agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy—all the achievements that make us profoundly different from chimpanzees and make a chimp in a business suit seem so deeply ridiculous—are somehow encoded within minute fractions of our genetic code. Nobody yet knows precisely where they are or how they work, but somewhere in the nuclei of our cells are handfuls of amino acids, arranged in a specific order, that endow us with the brainpower to outthink and outdo our closest relatives on the tree of life. They give us the ability to speak and write and read, to compose symphonies, paint masterpieces and delve into the molecular biology that makes us what we are.
Until recently, there was no way to unravel these crucial differences. Exactly what gives us advantages like complex brains and the ability to walk upright—and certain disadvantages, including susceptibility to a particular type of malaria, aids and Alzheimer's, that don't seem to afflict chimps—remained a mystery.
But that's rapidly changing. Just a year ago, geneticists announced that they had sequenced a rough draft of the chimpanzee genome, allowing the first side-by-side comparisons of human and chimpanzee DNA. Already, that research has led to important discoveries about the development of the human brain over the past few million years and possibly about our ancestors' mating behavior as well.
And sometime in the next few weeks, a team led by molecular geneticist Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, in Leipzig, Germany, will announce an even more stunning achievement: the sequencing of a significant fraction of the genome of Neanderthals—the human-like species we picture when we hear the word caveman—who are far closer to us genetically than chimps are. And though Neanderthals became extinct tens of thousands of years ago, Paabo is convinced he's on the way to reconstructing the entire genome of that long-lost relative, using DNA extracted, against all odds, from a 38,000-year-old bone.
Laid side by side, these three sets of genetic blueprints—plus the genomes of gorillas and other primates, which are already well on the way to being completely sequenced—will not only begin to explain precisely what makes us human but could lead to a better understanding of human diseases and how to treat them.
*** [Snip] ***
[Long article. For the rest, see the original: What Makes Us Different?]
This increasingly grates, yes. Like a rock in a shoe. Like an itch you can't scratch. It doesn't even have to be biology. It can be geology. It can be cosmology or astronomy. It can even be physics.
That this recurring freak show is such a predictable feature of life here says something unpleasant about the demographics. So does that current FR poll.
Thought experiment: when it is demonstrated that we can grow vocal cords & raise chimp IQ by enough points in order for them to be able to speak & comprehend, how is this going to effect the larger human population?
We all know it's coming, sooner than later. Will those that sign up for IQ enhancement gene therapy already be +1 std deviations, or will it be made available to those with -1 std deviations?
Will future brilliant generations look at our present-day geniuses with sadly condescending attitudes of how limited we were in our understanding of the world? Bonus question: will religion finally be on the ropes?
When I read the title, I was hoping this was going to explore what makes the races different, not species.
Life Type - Percentage difference in DNA
Kingdom - 50
Phylum - 20
Class - 10
Order - 8
Family - 6
Genus - 4
Species - 1.85
Race - 0.145
Individual - 0.005
We need to explore these differences so that we don't stereotype. Every DNA strand is sacred.
The poll is interesting. More lurkers than registered freepers have answered "No" to the idea of including creationism in science class (37% compared to 31.5%), but that's not surprising. We've always said that we post these science threads for the lurkers, to demonstrate that there are science-literate conservatives.
Those figures are higher when you discard the "votes" of those who voted "Undecided" or "Pass." When you do that you get 35.5% for freepers and 39.4% for lurkers. The overall figure for all voters who expressed an opinion is currently 37.5%. Any way you look at it, the result is horribly low (for keeping religion out of science classes), but it's far higher than some of the creationists around here had been hoping for.
Answer to all your questions: NO!
"First hijack attempt by #8?"
Good call!! #7 wss it.
No. Not only is gene sequence similar, but gene organization is also often similar, and the gene dissimilarities are also as they would be expected if creatures were related.
My elk and I are very happy. Please don't criticize my lifestyle.
LOL
Anne Elk?
They will look at the scientific powerhouses of Mexico, Vietnam and Kasikstan and compare their pursuit of science to the poor (by then 3rd or 4th rate) USA who ended its ability to do any real scientific research because science is Evil or doesn't address Philsophy sufficiently.
Thanks for the ping!
LOL
"This is just more confirmation of common descent "
Only a dipstick would confuse commonality with causality.
Learn the difference.
LOL!
Try this link. Remeber that I'm from Minnesota, not Wisconsin :-)
This is from the FAQ at The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM)...
________________________________________________________
Q: Why [do you believe humans are descendants of] Pirates?
A: We believe that humans evolved from pirates. Consider that humans share around 95% DNA with monkeys, and more than 99.9% DNA with pirates.
When studying the human genome and its similarity to that of the chimp, scientists have recently concluded that 96% of our genome is similar. However, most people are unaware that this percent pertains to the regions of our DNA that result in proteins. It seems logical that if a protein performs a certain function in one organism, then that same protein should perform the same function in a variety of organisms. This is evidence for a common designer as much as for a common ancestor. But most of the DNA sequence performs an unknown function and has been largely dismissed as “junk DNA.” However, increasing evidence supports the view that “junk” DNA performs an important role. For example, a recent report unexpectedly found specific sequence patterns in “junk” DNA which scientists have termed “pyknons.”1 It has been suggested that these pyknons may be important in determining when and where proteins are made.
Within this “junk DNA” there may be large differences between man and chimp. The areas of greatest difference appear to involve regions which are structurally different (commonly called “rearrangements”) and areas of heterochromatin (tightly packed DNA).
Here are some other interesting differences between the human and chimp genomes which are often not reported:
* The amount of chimp DNA is 12% larger than what it is in humans.
* Several hundred million bases (individual components of the DNA) of the chimp genome are still unanalyzed.
* In many areas of the DNA sequence, major “rearrangements” seem apparent. These account for perhaps 4–10% dissimilarity between chimps and humans.
* Chimps have 23 chromosomes and humans have only 22 (excluding sex chromosomes for both species).
Thus, the physical and mental differences between humans and chimps are most likely due to the differences in purpose and function of the so-called junk DNA. This understanding should leave us more mindful of the awesome complexity of the Creator and His creation of DNA.
Dr. Georgia Purdom earned her doctorate from Ohio State University in molecular genetics and spent six years as a professor of biology at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University. Dr. Purdom is also a member of the American Society for Microbiology and American Society for Cell Biology.
Pandemonium ensues.
Sister: Bitten.
Cheese: Eaten
Domestic tranquility: Restored only through use of a beeber-like stune device.
"Elk". Yeah, right.
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