Deciphering the DNA Code of Neanderthal Man

smooth wombat writes "U.S. and German scientists have embarked on a two-year long project to map the genetic code of Neanderthal man. Their hope is to gain a greater understanding of how modern human brains evolved. This study comes after last years completion of mapping the DNA of chimpanzees, our closest living relative." From the article: "Over two years, the scientists aim to reconstruct a draft of the 3 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 percent of the DNA in the samples is actually Neanderthal DNA, Egholm estimated, but he and Rothberg said pilot experiments had convinced them that the decoding was feasible."

Comments

Sheesh..

[vancondo]

You people, with your 'facts' and 'figures'.. 40,000 year old samples?!

ridiculous.

Everybody knows that the earth is only 27 years old.

This is going to end badly

[iambarry]

Didn't I see this in a movie?

Maybe scientists should get out more. First they sequence the Neanderthals DNA. Next, they'll be cloning one. Then the clone's start multiplying. Finally they take over the earth. Isn't this obvious to anyone else, or is it just me?

According to their digestive enzymes...

[jpellino]

.. they lived almost exclusively on a diet of roast duck with mango salsa.

Closest living relative?

[Bryansix]

chimpanzees, our closest living relative.

I don't know about you guys but my closest living relative is probably my mother or maybe my father.