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1、98%Alike?(WhatOurSimilaritytoApesTellsUsAboutOurUnderstandingofGenetics)ByJONATHANMARKSMay2000Humansandchimpsaresaidtodifferbyamere1-2%ofourDNA.Thisfigure,however,asamazingasitseemsatfirst,mustbeinterpreted.Moreover,weneedtoputthefigureintoperspective.Whataretheimplicationsforourkinsh
2、ipasindicatedbytaxonomicclassification;arehumans,indeed,apes,orapeshominids?Andjusthowdifferentis1-1%?Doesitmeanthatourphenotypes–ourbodiesandbehaviors–arealsojust2percentdifferent?Inthisselection,JonMarksaddressesthesequestionsandshowstheimportanceofconsideringtheculturalcontextandin
3、terpretationofourscientificdata.Asyouread,considerthefollowingquestionsandemailmeyouranswersbyOctober26th(aswellasbringahardcopytoclassonOctober27th):1.Whatisthe“apparentparadox”towhichMarksrefersinthesecondparagraph?2.Comparinganytwospecies,howdifferentaretworandomsequencesoftheirDNA
4、likelytobe?Whyisthisso?3.Doesthemorethan98%geneticsimilaritybetweenhumansandchimpsreflecta98%similarityintheirphenotypes?Inwhatimportantwaysareourgenesdifferent?4.Markssaysthathumansareapesinthesamewaythathumansarefish.Whatdoeshemeanbythis?5.Whatisitaboutgeneticsthat,accordingtoMarks,
5、canmisleadusaswedrawconclusionsfromgeneticdata?It'snottoohardtotellJaneGoodallfromachimpanzee.Goodallistheonewithlonglegsandshortarms,aprominentforehead,andwhitesinhereyes.She'stheonewithasignificantamountofhaironlyonherhead,notalloverherbody.She'stheonewhowalks,talks,andwearsclothing
6、.Afewdecadesago,however,thenascentfieldofmoleculargeneticsrecognizedanapparentparadox:HowevereasyitmaybetotellJaneGoodallfromachimpanzeeonthebasisofphysicalcharacteristics,itisconsiderablyhardertotellthemapartaccordingtotheirgenes.Morerecently,geneticistshavebeenabletodeterminewithpre
7、cisionthathumansandchimpanzeesareover98percentidenticalgenetically,andthatfigurehasbecomeoneofthemostwell-knownfactoidsinthepopularscientificliterature.Ithasbeeninvokedtoarguethatwearesimplyathirdkindofchimpanzee,togetherwiththecommonchimpandtherarerbonobo;toclaimhumanrightsfornonhuma
8、napes
