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Research Suggests Apes and Humans Separated By a Single Gene
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers believe that they have found the definitive difference between humans and other primates, and they think that the difference all comes down to a single gene."
And some are separated by less.
501
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
If this is indeed true, you know somebody is going to try it.
(Although the reverse experiment has apparently been done, a casual perusal of C-span makes that obvious.)
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Why don't you link to the original article?
We should be serving bananas for Thanksgiving!
a group of baboons is called a Congress...
TFA makes it clear that it was a difference in this gene that _started_ the divergence, between 6 and 1 million years ago. TFS makes it sound like flipping one gene would produce chimpanzees rather than humans.
Meet "Chimp 9". We gave him a gene therapy...
By a Single Gene: Test on Trolls here on /. prove it. Trolls = dumb gene, and Humans = smart gene. It's really that simple. Happy Thanksgiving.
FWIW, at a 1% mutation rate, over how many years, an there is only one gene difference? I really find that hard to believe.
You know who I am talking about, the family who have an overly-grown fur on them through several generations.
Is that just a chance mutation relating to hair? Or something deeper?
I'm still not sure. For something as complex as both of us, a single gene being able to toggle between humans and apes sounds a bit simple.
Admittedly the change could be seriously early in the growth process, but to cause the same set of genes around it to grow towards a human instead of ape doesn't sit nicely with me.
And we are speaking of things that evolved this basis rather than being constructed, which makes the chance of such a single gene switch incredibly less likely.
If is were true though... damn, that would be pretty damn big and means evolution is a much much smarter process than we could have imagined when it comes to optimization.
The more we learn about it, the more surprised we become at how efficient it has become over the time it has had to, well, evolve, quite literally.
From TFA:
...The gene is highly active in the regions of the brain that control language learning and decision making, indicating that it may play a significant role in the higher brain functions that make humans, well, human.
Recalling my experience when trying to socialize with people so far, I believe this gene in a significant proportion of humanity works only partially...
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Surely will be found soon!
... what GMO food they eat....
The "God" gene...
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
Gene Simmons they're talking about....
Bullshit.
Thant is all.
Climate Progress - Hell and High Water
I always wonder at the first human to appear.
Looking terribly odd. No-one to talk to. Nothing to read. Nowhere to shop.
How bleak.
If you have a Y, you're an ape!
A pox on web designers who feel that window.innerWidth == screen.availWidth
It's the genetic drive to buy useless shit you don't really need. Humans that lack this drive are actually less evolved but better at handling their own money.
The article is crock. Scientists didn't pretend that "all the difference humans and apes comes down to a single gene", they stated that they discovered a new brain gene that is unique to humans .and they are hopeful to find more of the same to help explain what makes us who we are.
They don''t even say that this gene was the "first" and sprang all the others. All they are saying is that it played a significant role in human evolution, and that it appeared from junk DNA after humans evolved from apes.
Being unique to humans, and being the one and only single difference between humans and apes, are two different things. One is a scientific statement and the other is typical media sensationalist drivel.
That allows you to eliminate humans (here are trolls' samplesets verified as 100% trolls):
agrif, alex belits, americano, apparently, arth1, ash-fox, bengie, bill_mcgonigle, bitztream, BMO, burning toast, c0d3g33k, c0lo, chase husky, cheeks5965, cmv1087, cp.tar, crutchy, cynyr, damaged_sectors, danbeck, datapharmer, dbill, decora, docmordin, drinkypoo, eldorel, ewanm89, falconhell, fatphil, gameboyRMH, gazzonyx, ginger unicorn, green 1, hakahaka, half-pint HAL, hazel bergeron, hoggoth, hungryhobo, ikonoishi, interiot, ionsimonc, itchythebear, kalriath, kingnotley, kjella, lennie, lister king of smeg, locutus, lordlimecat, macraig, mandelbr0t, man_of_mr_e, mcavic, metrix007, mevets, mrnaz, mysteriouspreacher, nikker, oakgrove, oldsparky, omestes, onymous coward. ozmanjusr, phorm, pseudonymauthority, qzukk. rasperin, robertm, ryuuzakitetsuya, sarten-x, sectoid_dev, silanea, skidborg, sortius_nod, sprocket, suricouraven, swalve, TCM, technovampire, teun, the askylist, theraven64, tibit, tilante, tqk, tragedy, trapnest, unknowingfool, wanderingidiot, yacc143, zaelath, znerk, zoips, zoloto, zontarthemindless, bratmobile, cbiltcliffe, clone52431 = clone53421, couchslug, countertrolling, damn_registrars, erroneus, gmhowell, gottabeme, jeremiah cornelius, maxwell demon, mcgrew, michaelkristopeit, msparks43, redflaya, richie2000, robertm, sanityinanarchy, sardaukar86, sexconker, squiggleslash, stenchwarrior, theendofdays, tomhudson, vegemeister, webmistressrachel, xest
There are more. Do you want them?
More importantly, it all comes down to mirrors.
Apes will look at themselves in a hand mirror for about 5 seconds, check behind the mirror, and then go on about their business.
Humans have a look, and then never put it down.
bla bla bla
I'll give it some more thought after the NFL games are over today.
Have gnu, will travel.
What actually separates all other races from Africans is beastiality. Sex with the Neanderthals. All Europeans contain between 2 and 5% Neanderthal DNA. They lived in the northern continents for millions of years before us and were not as intelligent as African humans. The Africans came in, did a little cross breeding and wiped them out in a few tens of thousands of years.
Carlin was a comedian and an absolute master with language. His comedy works because there is a grain of truth in it, but if he were alive today I'm sure he would be shaking his head in disbelief at all the people who now think his work is revealed truth.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
During and after this significant divirgent evolution occured in Europe, European homo sapiens populations have evolved over 30,000 years in Europe, leading to many unique qualities and traits such as blonde hair, and the ability to digest milk throughout life. The uniqueness of each of the human races is a good thing and something we should cherish. I am for respecting and preserving all of the worlds unique races.
I wonder how long it will be before someone tries splicing this into a chimp or great ape genome and see what happens... :-)
Ian Ameline
They fall on the short-bus side of life.
Seems about right. That would explain the number of monkeys in Congress.
A "grain"? I think there's a hell of a lot more truth to what he said than most people are willing to admit. More "truth" than I've ever heard from any Christians (and they by far make up the majority), that's for sure. I've always agreed with a lot of the things he said. He said things how it is, while no one else had the balls to do it, out of fear of "upsetting" someone.
I'm shocked that humans aren't considered apes.
Any two species are separated by all their genes that differ. It's tautological.
.: Semper Absurda
so then how many genes separate humans from pigs? it seems like a lot more pig parts are used in humans than parts from any primates.
neanderthals weren't beasts, they were archcaic humans, with language, advanced tools, art and complex social groups. It is racist of you to make a claim of "beastiality"
I see you've been moded down. That'll learn ya to tell the truth on slashdot.
... Gene Simmons
The actual paper is here: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n10/full/ncomms2146.html It's talking about miRNA *not* genes, nor does the paper claim or support the notion this is the single defining difference between humans and apes. For those who don't know, not all of our RNA encodes cellular machinery. Some RNA molecules regulate whether other RNA molecules go on to make a functional protein, this paper is describing a class of regulatory RNA that may act on many hundreds of targets. (To quote from the Discussion: "birth of a novel miRNA might influence expression of hundreds of genes"). In this instance, some of the targets regulated by this new miRNA are neural so it appears to be a very significant finding. It's a very interesting paper, utterly over-egged by the headlines. I suspect a dodgy press release/over excited journalists.
I don't like them very much.
So, since genes come in pairs, this is about a pair of genes? As I always suspected, the real difference is in the trouser department, then.
What's that Peter you found the "Soul Gene"?
"gene miR-941. They say that the gene played an integral role in human development and contributed to humans' ability to use tools and learn languages."
The article misinterprets the findings. All they state is that they believe they have found the gene that played a significant role in how we evolved much farther than apes. Misleading headline..
neanderthals weren't beasts, they were archcaic humans, with language, advanced tools, art and complex social groups. It is racist of you to make a claim of "beastiality"
Thank god you're here to get offended on behalf of a group of hominids that has been extinct for hundreds of thousands of years. I bet you're an absolute *joy* at parties, where you exhibit your uncanny talent to twist everyone else's enjoyment into guilt.
Party Host: "...and that's when I saw he was dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!"
<everyone else laughs but rubycodez>
Rubycodez: "That's not funny. Kwashikoror is the name of the disorder that causes the bellies of starving African children to swell up, and it's caused by protein malnutrition. These children suffer when their mother stops producing enough milk to feed them, and they often have flies teeming around their mouths and eyes as they slowly waste away to death."
Actually it's not a gene, it's a micro RNA.
A gene is like a blueprint for a protein. This a chunk of DNA that encodes and RNA which in turn up and down regulates other genes. It's not a great metaphor but you might think of it as like the scaffolding used to build a house rather than the blueprints.
It is just a monkey that learned to put down thoughts on papyrus, clay tablets, papers, electronic display. etc.
This is it. It is the state of the science on this.
Let me guess... Gene Simmons ?
The Bible states that man is separate from the beasts, and science just proved it. Another nail in the evolutionist's coffin.
is that the popular press will overhype scientific results to the point of meaninglessness.
"Medical Daily" now counts as popular press in my book.
Calm down you bunch of geeks. Before one of you get hurt with your handbags.
miR are a group of regulatory RNA which can change transcription of other genes. They were considered 'junk' DNA as they do not get transcribed into proteins- instead they can regulate large numbers of genes with similar sequences. The evolution of a regulator which works in human neural tissue is interesting, as we're not sure why we're so good at thinking and apes aren't. Especially as this miR can regulate a large number of other neural genes, it's interesting to consider what really makes us human.
God will punish you for denying His geniality when he made humans out of apes by applying a single-gene patch to their genome.
If this wasn't a flamebait answer, I don't know what what...
Evolved doesn't mean "better".
I thought human's divergent evolution from other primates was largely caused by the merging of two chromosomes. That's why we have 23 and all other great apes have 24. That seems like a fairly definitive difference.
Or, it is an example of Poe's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
Or your post is...
I'm not sure about anything anymore...
what about blacks and humans
It's the correct term. They're a different species, separated by millions of years of evolution.
Tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands. Like, 30,000ish
Thanks for pointing that out. Also, it's "kwashiorkor"; notwithstanding, my overall point stands.