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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....
Nobody Seems To Notice and Nobody Seems To Care - Government & Stealth Malware
In Response To Slashdot Article: Former Pentagon Analyst: China Has Backdoors To 80% of Telecoms 87
How many rootkits does the US[2] use officially or unofficially?
How much of the free but proprietary software in the US spies on you?
Which software would that be?
Visit any of the top freeware sites in the US, count the number of thousands or millions of downloads of free but proprietary software, much of it works, again on a proprietary Operating System, with files stored or in transit.
How many free but proprietary programs have you downloaded and scanned entire hard drives, flash drives, and other media? Do you realize you are giving these types of proprietary programs complete access to all of your computer's files on the basis of faith alone?
If you are an atheist, the comparison is that you believe in code you cannot see to detect and contain malware on the basis of faith! So you do believe in something invisible to you, don't you?
I'm now going to touch on a subject most anti-malware, commercial or free, developers will DELETE on most of their forums or mailing lists:
APT malware infecting and remaining in BIOS, on PCI and AGP devices, in firmware, your router (many routers are forced to place backdoors in their firmware for their government) your NIC, and many other devices.
Where are the commercial or free anti-malware organizations and individual's products which hash and compare in the cloud and scan for malware for these vectors? If you post on mailing lists or forums of most anti-malware organizations about this threat, one of the following actions will apply: your post will be deleted and/or moved to a hard to find or 'deleted/junk posts' forum section, someone or a team of individuals will mock you in various forms 'tin foil hat', 'conspiracy nut', and my favorite, 'where is the proof of these infections?' One only needs to search Google for these threats and they will open your malware world view to a much larger arena of malware on devices not scanned/supported by the scanners from these freeware sites. This point assumed you're using the proprietary Microsoft Windows OS. Now, let's move on to Linux.
The rootkit scanners for Linux are few and poor. If you're lucky, you'll know how to use chkrootkit (but you can use strings and other tools for analysis) and show the strings of binaries on your installation, but the results are dependent on your capability of deciphering the output and performing further analysis with various tools or in an environment such as Remnux Linux. None of these free scanners scan the earlier mentioned areas of your PC, either! Nor do they detect many of the hundreds of trojans and rootkits easily available on popular websites and the dark/deep web.
Compromised defenders of Linux will look down their nose at you (unless they are into reverse engineering malware/bad binaries, Google for this and Linux and begin a valuable education!) and respond with a similar tone, if they don't call you a noob or point to verifying/downloading packages in a signed repo/original/secure source or checking hashes, they will jump to conspiracy type labels, ignore you, lock and/or shuffle the thread, or otherwise lead you astray from learning how to examine bad binaries. The world of Linux is funny in this way, and I've been a part of it for many years. The majority of Linux users, like the Windows users, will go out of their way to lead you and say anything other than pointing you to information readily available on detailed binary file analysis.
Don't let them get you down, the information is plenty and out there, some from some well known publishers of Linux/Unix books. Search, learn, and share the information on detecting and picking through bad binaries. But this still will not touch the void of the APT malware described above which will survive any wipe of r/w media. I'm convinced, on both *nix and Windows, these pieces of APT malware
Memorable quotes for
Looker (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/quotes
"John Reston: Television can control public opinion more effectively than armies of secret police, because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch T.V. Americans of all ages *submit* to television. Television is the American ideal. Persuasion without coercion. Nobody makes us watch. Who could have predicted that a *free* people would voluntarily spend one fifth of their lives sitting in front of a *box* with pictures? Fifteen years sitting in prison is punishment. But 15 years sitting in front of a television set is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life just watching television commercials. Fifty minutes, every day of his life, watching commercials. Now, that's power."
##
"The United States has it's own propaganda, but it's very effective because people don't realize that it's propaganda. And it's subtle, but it's actually a much stronger propaganda machine than the Nazis had but it's funded in a different way. With the Nazis it was funded by the government, but in the United States, it's funded by corporations and corporations they only want things to happen that will make people want to buy stuff. So whatever that is, then that is considered okay and good, but that doesn't necessarily mean it really serves people's thinking - it can stupify and make not very good things happen."
- Crispin Glover: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio
##
"It's only logical to assume that conspiracies are everywhere, because that's what people do. They conspire. If you can't get the message, get the man." - Mel Gibson (from an interview)
##
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William Casey, CIA Director
##
"The real reason for the official secrecy, in most instances, is not to keep the opposition (the CIA's euphemistic term for the enemy) from knowing what is going on; the enemy usually does know. The basic reason for governmental secrecy is to keep you, the American public, from knowing - for you, too, are considered the opposition, or enemy - so that you cannot interfere. When the public does not know what the government or the CIA is doing, it cannot voice its approval or disapproval of their actions. In fact, they can even lie to your about what they are doing or have done, and you will not know it. As for the second advantage, despite frequent suggestion that the CIA is a rogue elephant, the truth is that the agency functions at the direction of and in response to the office of the president. All of its major clandestine operations are carried out with the direct approval of or on direct orders from the White House. The CIA is a secret tool of the president - every president. And every president since Truman has lied to the American people in order to protect the agency. When lies have failed, it has been the duty of the CIA to take the blame for the president, thus protecting him. This is known in the business as "plausible denial." The CIA, functioning as a secret instrument of the U.S. government and the presidency, has long misused and abused history and continues to do so."
- Victor Marchetti, Propaganda and Disinformation: How the CIA Manufactures History
##
George Carlin:
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehous
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.
There is far more genetic difference than this. In fact there is significant difference between human races in genetics, for instance some human races have 5% larger brain volume and more complex brain folding leading to 20% higher IQs for some races, such as european, ashkenazi jew, and oriental, which have the highest IQs with blacks being the lowest IQ. This integrates with evolutionary theory that the higher IQ genes developed in cold winter environments where more advanced technology and long term planning was needed to survive the cold winters. No kidding, its a scientific fact supported by peer reviewed studies.
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.
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
A little difference is actually a HUGE difference. Scientists lie about how vastly different the genetics really are. All fake evidence for the evolutionary theory. People just want evolution to be true so they don't feel they have to be accountable to a God.
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"
... 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.
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.